ON  LIFE  AFTER 
DEATH 


PEGHNER 


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ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH 


PROF.  G.  T.  FECHNER 


ON 


LIFE  AFTER  DEATH 


FROM  THE  GERMAN 
OF 

GUSTAV  THEODOR  FECHNER 


BY 

DR.  HUGO  WERNEKKE 
Head  Master  of  Weimar  Realtfymnasium 


Third  Edition 


CHICAGO  AND  LONDON 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 
1914 


Copyright  1906 

by 

THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  CO. 
CHICAGO 


TO 

THE    MEMORY    OF 

THE  REVERED  AUTHOR, 
WHO  ON  HIS  EIGHTIETH  BIRTHDAY  KINDLY 
j  ACCEPTED  THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  VERSION  OF 

THE  PRESENT  LITTLE  BOOK 

ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH 
K» 

J  FROM 

The  Translator. 


c- 


364508 


"...    El  nacer 
Y  el  morir  son  parecidos." 

La  vida  es  sueno:  I.  678. 


TRANSLATOR'S  PREFACE. 

FECHNER'S  famous  essay,  Das  Bitch- 
lem  vom  Leben  nach  dem  Tode, 
which  in  this  present  shape1  hopes 
to  be  made  welcome  to  the  English-reading 
public,  came  out  originally  in  1835.  But 
in  the  age  of  romanticism,  strange  to  say, 
it  seems  to  have  met  with  little  more  favor 
than  in  the  ensuing  period  of  materialism, 
when  Buchner  and  Moleschott  proclaimed 
a  creed  attainable  without  much  mental  ef- 
fort. A  second  edition,  therefore,  slightly 
altered,2  was  not  undertaken  till  1866.  A 
third  edition,  in  1887,  bore  witness,  on  the 

1  It  is  a  revision  of  our  first  edition,  published  in 
1882  by  Sampson  Low,  Marston,  Searle  &  Rivington, 
London.     While  this  new  edition  was  in  preparation, 
another   translation    came   out   in    the    United    States, 
by  Maria  C.  Wadsworth  (Boston  1905). 

2  The  alterations,  throughout  in  the  shape  of  omis- 
sions,  are   slight  in   extent,   but  characteristic  of   the 
author's  mental  development.     He  thought  it  advisa- 
ble to  suppress  certain  passages,  in  which  his  philo- 

7 


8  PREFACE. 


one  hand,  that  the  new  generation  had  be- 
gun to  appreciate  the  booklet,  and  on  the 
other  hand,  that  its  author,  with  his  mind 
constantly  fixed  on  the  highest  problems  of 
moral  and  natural  philosophy,  still  upheld 
the  views  set  forth  in  one  of  his  earliest 
publications.  A  fourth  and  a  fifth  reprint 
came  out,  after  his  death,  in  1900  and 
1903. 

It  was  a  long  and  laborious  life,  though 
outwardly  uneventful,  which  closed  on  No- 
vember 18th,  1887.  Gustav  Theodor 
Fechner  was  born,  on  April  19th,  1801,  at 
Gross-Sarchen,  a  small  village  in  the  Ober- 
lausitz,  which  at  present  belongs  to  the 
Prussian  province  of  Silesia,  whereas  in 
the  beginning  of  the  last  century  it  was 
under  the  Elector  of  Saxony.  Hence  it 
was  at  the  ancient  Saxon  university,  in 
Leipzig,  that  Fechner  went  through  his 
course  of  studies,  and  where  in  1834,  he 
was  appointed  professor  of  physics.  His 

sophic  imagination  might  be  considered  to  have  taken 
too  daring  a  flight.  They  will  be  found,  with  a 
reference  to  their  original  place  in  his  deductions,  at 
the  end  of  this  translation. 


PREFACE. 


sphere  of  activity  was  not  confined  to  the 
delivering  of  public  lectures.  He  wrote, 
and  translated  from  the  French,  science 
textbooks,  and  conducted  several  maga- 
zines of  a  scientific  character.  The  obser- 
vations preparatory  to  his  publications  on 
galvanism  and  electro-magnetism  proved 
injurious  to  his  eyesight,  so  that  for  some 
time  he  was  obliged  to  give  up  all  writing 
and  lecturing.  It  was,  however,  so  far  re- 
stored as  to  enable  him  to  labor  for  many 
successive  years  in  the  fields  of  scientific  in- 
vestigation and  philosophical  and  meta- 
physical speculation. 

His  standard  work  Elemente  der  Psy- 
chophysik  was  published  in  1859  (with  im- 
portant additions  issued  in  1877  and 
1882).  Slowly,  at  least  in  the  beginning, 
but  steadily  and  very  honorably,  it  has 
made  its  way  among  men  of  science,  at 
home  and  abroad.  Fechner's  Law,  the 
fundamental  law  of  psychophysics  (stating 
that  sensation  varies  in  the  ratio  of  the  log- 
arithm of  impression)  has  become  a  term 
of  international  currency. 

"It    will    never    be    forgotten,"    says 


10  PREFACE. 


Wundt,3  "that  Fechner  was  the  first  to  in- 
troduce exact  methods,  exact  principles  of 
measurement  and  experimental  observa- 
tion for  the  investigation  of  psychic  phe- 
nomena, and  thereby  to  open  the  prospect 
of  a  psychological  science,  in  the  strict 
sense  of  the  word.  When  Herbart  had  a 
similar  aim  in  view,  he  failed  to  find  the 
way  towards  it.  The  chief  merit  of  Fech- 
ner's  method  is  this :  that  it  has  nothing  to 
apprehend  from  the  vicissitudes  of  philo- 
sophical systems.  Modern  psychology  has 
indeed  assumed  a  really  scientific  character, 
and  may  keep  aloof  from  all  metaphysical 
controversy." 

If  among  the  divers  branches  of  psychol- 
ogy, aesthetics  seemed  least  of  all  suscepti- 
ble of  scientific  treatment,  it  was  Fechner 
again,  who  attempted,  and  successfully  at- 
tempted, an  Introduction  to  ^Esthetics 
(Forschule  der  jEsthetik,  1876),  based  on 
experiment  and  analysis.  He  modestly 
speaks  of  it  as  a  "rhapsodic"  discussion  of 

3  Gustav  Theodor  Fechner.  Rede  zur  Feier  seines 
hundertjahrigen  Geburtstags  gehalten  von  Wilhelm 
Wundt.  Leipzig  1901. 


PREFACE.  11 


various  questions,  but  he  clearly  shows  the 
way  to  solve  the  proposed  problems — not 
on  the  basis  of  a  priori  principles,  by  the 
descending  process  or  the  way  "from 
above,"  as  he  likes  to  describe  it,  but  by  ob- 
servation and  induction,  by  the  ascending 
process,  the  way  "from  below."  He  dwells 
upon  the  connection  of  the  problems  on 
hand  with  the  more  general  investigation 
of  the  causes  of  pleasure.  Beginning  with 
pleasing  objects  of  the  simplest  description 
(geometrical  figures,  for  instance),  and 
proceeding  to  analyze  works  of  art,  he 
finds  out  experimentally  what  it  is  that 
makes  things  pleasant  or  unpleasant,  and 
formulates  the  principles  of  aesthetic 
pleasure. 

The  long  and  varied  list  of  Fechner's 
publications,  in  the  shape  of  detached  es- 
says, pamphlets  and  greater  works,  opens 
with  the  writings  of  "Dr.  Mises" — such  as 
A  Demonstration  that  the  Moon  is  made 
of  Iodine,  A  Panegyric  of  the  Medical  Art 
of  the  Present  Time,  Four  Paradoxes,4' 

4  The  Paradoxes  dexterously  proved  by  Dr.  Mises 
are  these,  That  the  shadow  is  a  living  being;  That 


12  PREFACE. 


Stapelia  Mixta*  and  at  the  first  sight  it 
may  seem  hard  to  realize  the  identity  of 
Dr.  Mises,  with  his  sometimes  exuberantly 
fantastic  humor,  and  Professor  Fechner, 
the  scientist  and  philosopher.  And  yet  the 
sympathetic  reader  will  understand  how 
the  one  could  develop  into  the  other.  There 
is  similarity  of  style  between  them,  and 
there  is,  strange  as  it  may  sound,  relation- 
ship of  subject.  The  Anatomy  of  Angels, 
for  instance,  which  reads  very  like  a  fairy- 
tale, turns  out  to  be  a  humorous  prelude 
to  the  fundamental  conception  of  the 

space  has  four  dimensions;  That  witchcraft  is  a  reality; 
That  the  world  was  made  not  by  a  creative  but  by  a 
destructive  principle. 

5  The  whimsical  choice  of  this  title  is  thus  face- 
tiously explained  by  the  author:  "I  was  anxious  to 
follow  the  fashion  with  my  little  book,  sending  it  out 
under  the  name  of  some  flower.  But  finding  that  the 
recent  publications  were  adorned  with  the  names  of 
almost  all  the  children  of  Flora  which  I  knew,  I  was 
rather  at  a  loss,  till  a  Stapelia  mixta,  placed  outside 
my  window,  caught  my  eye,  a  flower  of  a  somewhat 
sombre  color,  dotted  with  glaring  bright  specks,  and 
exhaling  an  odor,  that  the  carrion-flies  will  lay  their 
eggs  on  it  by  mistake.  As  little  as  a  Christian,  I  said 
to  myself,  will  ever  call  his  baby  Judas  Iscariot,  as 
little  can  a  fashionable  author  have  called  his  book 
after  that  flower.  And  so  my  hesitation  was  removed." 


PREFACE.  13 


planet-world,  on  which  the  first  part  of  his 
Zend-Avesta  is  based.  Originally  the 
Booklet  on  Life  after  Death,  dedicated  to 
two  young  ladies,  the  daughters  of  Fech- 
ner's  friend  Grimmer,  a  Leipzig  book- 
seller, also  bore  the  name  of  Dr.  Mises. 
Here,  however,  the  author  is  quite  grave. 
The  subject  of  the  second  part  of  Zend- 
Avesta  (which  did  not  appear  till  16 
years  afterwards)  is  here  previously 
sketched,  with  a  forcible  eloquence  and 
great  warmth  of  feeling.  The  author  con- 
fines himself  to  stating  his  ideas,  the  dog- 
matic tone  is  prevalent,  the  reasoning  by 
analogy,  a  peculiar  modification  of  the  in- 
ductive method,  which  is  the  characteristic 
feature  of  his  later  works,  is  less  obvious 
here. 

Another  little  book  of  a  preliminary 
character,  on  the  Summum  Bonum  (Vber 
das  hochste  Gut,  1846)  briefly  stating  the 
ethical  principles  more  fully  expounded  in 
Zend-Avesta,  was  followed,  in  1848,  by  an 
elaborate  discussion  of  what  Fechner  terms 
uthe  Soul-Question" — the  problem  of  the 
soul.  In  Nanna,  or  the  Soul-Life  of  Plants, 


14  PREFACE. 


he  upholds  that  the  same  reasons  which 
cause  us  to  assume  the  existence  of  a  mind 
or  soul6  in  the  bodies  of  man  and  of  ani- 
mals, viz. :  the  evident  design  in  their  bod- 
ily organization,  the  helpful  interaction  of 
their  organs,  the  reaction  upon,  and  adap- 
tation to,  outward  conditions,  must  induce 
us  to  assume  that  there  is  a  soul  in  plants  as 
well.  From  the  tenet  that  the  organized 
beings  inferior  to  man  must  have  a  soul,  or 
rather  do  not  consist  of  a  body  and  soul, 
but  are  body  and  soul  in  one,  like  man  him- 
self, he  proceeded  to  the  higher  and  grand- 
er conception,  that  the  beings  superior  to 
man,  the  celestial  bodies,  must  likewise 
have  an  inward  life,  underlying,  or  con- 
comitant with,  their  outward  life — that,  in 
fact,  the  whole  universe  is  alive,  not  a  dead 
bulk,  but  an  animated  being,  a  wonderful 
organism  of  the  sublimest  order.  This 
grand  doctrine  was  ingeniously  and  elo- 

8  It  may  be  as  well  to  state  here  that  Fechner,  with 
his  skill  in  minute  research  and  his  mastery  of  lan- 
guage, has  little  taste  for  certain  subtleties  of  termin- 
ology, so  that  in  his  writings,  as  in  our  translation, 
the  terms  mind,  soul,  spirit,  are  used  with  very  little 
difference  of  meaning. 


PREFACE.  15 


quently  set  forth  in  Zend-Avesta,  or  the 
Things  of  Heaven  and  the  Hereafter 
(Zend-Avesta,  oder  tiber  die  Dinge  des 
Himmels  und  des  Jenseits),  published  in 
1851,  in  three  volumes,  of  which  the  first 
and  second  contain  his  ideas  on  the  relation 
of  human  life  to  divine  life  and  the  life  of 
the  universe,  whereas  the  subject  of  the 
third  is  the  relation  of  our  present  life  to 
the  life  to  come.  He  sums  up  his  ideas  in 
the  following  paragraphs : 

Syllabus  of  the  Theory  of  Heavenly  Things. 
(Zend-Avesta,  Chap.  XX.) 

1.  According  to  a  quite  justified,  though  not 
exactly  current  view,  the  earth — comprising  in 
the  term  water,  air,  animals,  plants,  in  short, 
everything  that  by  the  force  of  attraction  is  re- 
tained on  it — represents,  in  the  same  way  as  the 
human  body,  a  system  based  on  the  continuity  of 
substance  and  closely  held  together  by  mutual  and 
purposeful  interaction,  made  up  of  a  variety  of 
parts  and  subordinate  systems,  and  going  through, 
in  never-ending  evolution,  a  variety  of  periodical 
and  cyclical  motions,  of  which  general  system  of 
parts  and  motions  the  human  body  constitutes  an 
inferior  system. 


16  PREFACE. 


2.  Examining   the   various   points    of    resem- 
blance as  well  as  of  difference  between  man  and 
earth,  we  discover  on  the  one  hand  an  agreement 
between  them  in  every  point  which  in  any  theory 
of  the  relation  between  body  and  soul  has  been  es- 
tablished as  characteristic  of  a  spiritual  individual- 
ity connected  with  a  material  organism,  whereas 
their  undeniable  differences  make  it  evident  that 
the  earth  is  an  individuality  of  higher  and  more 
independent  life  than  man's  lower  and  more  re- 
strained life. 

3.  As  our  bodies  belong  to  the  greater  and 
higher  individual  body  of  the  earth,  so  our  spirits 
belong  to  the  greater  and  higher  individual  spirit 
of  the  earth,  which  comprises  all  the  spirits  of 
earthly  creatures,  very  much  as  the  earth-body 
comprises  their  bodies.     At  the  same   time  the 
earth-spirit  is  not  a  mere  assembly  of  all  the  spirits 
of  the  earth,  but  a  higher,  individually  conscious 
union  of  them.     Our  own  individuality  and  in- 
dependence, which  are  naturally  but  of  a  relative 
character,  are  not  impaired  but  conditioned  by  this 
union.     If  any  meaning  is  to  be  connected  with 
the  term  in  current  use  when  we  speak  of  a  "spirit 
of  mankind,"  we  must  identify  it  with  the  spirit 
of  the  earth. 

4.  Considering  that  the  earth  is  one  of  the 
celestial  bodies,  and  reasoning  again  from  analogy, 
we  are  led  to  view  those  bodies,  the  stars,  as  en- 


PREFACE.  17 


dowed  with  an  individual  spirit  each,  and  thus 
forming  a  realm  of  another  and  higher  order  of 
beings,  in  which  we  may  indeed  discover  such 
characteristics  as  we  have  reason  to  ascribe  to  be- 
ings of  a  higher  order  than  ours.  This  view  of 
ours  coincides  with  the  belief  of  many  human 
races,  which  at  all  times,  as  long  as  they  were  in 
close  contact  with  nature,  looked  upon  the  hosts 
of  heaven  as  divine  beings — and  wherein  our  own 
popular  belief  in  angels  has  its  roots. 

5.  As  all  the  stars,  considered  materially,  be- 
long to  the  material  universe,  so  all  the  spirits  of 
stars  belong  to  the  spirit  of  the  universe,  i.  e.,  the 
divine  spirit.     At  the  same  time  their  own  indi- 
viduality and  independence  is  as  little  impaired 
by  this  circumstance  as  our  own  spirits  are  by  their 
connection  with  the  earth-spirit:  it  is  their  com- 
mon link,  their  highest  conscious  union. 

6.  The  divine   spirit  is  one,   omniscient   and 
truly  all-conscious,  i.  e.,  holding  all  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  universe  and  thus  comprising  each  indi- 
vidual consciousness  of  his  creatures  in  a  higher 
and  the  highest  connection. 

7.  As  the  earth,  far  from  separating  our  bodies 
from  the  universe,  connects  and  incorporates  us 
with  the  universe,  so  the  spirit  of  the  earth,  far 
from  separating  our  spirits  from  the  divine  spirit, 
forms  a  higher  individual   connection  of   every 
earthly   spirit   with   the   spirit   of   the   universe. 


18  PREFACE. 


This  circumstance  does  not  abolish  the  blessed 
fact  that  we  have  in  Christ  the  highest  mediator 
between  God  and  man. 

Syllabus  of  the  Theory  of  the  Hereafter 
(Zend-Avesta,  Chap  XXXI.) 

1.  When  a  man  dies,  his  spirit  will  not  be 
absorbed   in   the   greater   and   higher   spirit   of 
which  it  was  born  to  an  individual  existence;  on 
the  contrary,  his  relation  to  that  spirit  will  become 
clear  and  conscious,  and  his  whole  spiritual  prop- 
erty will  appear  in  a  higher  light.     By  that  higher 
spirit  the  earth-spirit  as  well  as  the  divine  spirit 
may  be  understood,  as  it  is  the  spirit  of  the  earth 
that  connects  us  with  God. 

2.  Our  present  life  and  our  future  life  may 
aptly  be  compared  to  a  life  of  perceptions  and  a 
life  of  reminiscences.     Or  we  may  say  that  the 
higher  spirit  to  whom  we  belong  will  transfer 
us  in  death  from  his  lower  life,  of  perceptions, 
to  his  higher  life,  of  reminiscences.    As  now  we 
share  his  perception  life,  without  losing  our  in- 
dividuality and  relative  independence,  we  shall 
share,  in  a  like  manner,  his  reminiscence-life. 

3.  The   relation  between   the   spirits  of   that 
higher  stage  and  those  of  our  lower  stage,  which 
are  connected  into  one  spiritual  realm,  finds  its 
analogy  in  the  connection  of  our  own  spheres  of 


PREFACE.  19 


reminiscences  and  perceptions.  As  our  percep- 
tions derive  a  higher  significance  from  our  rem- 
iniscences, and  as  our  reminiscences  are  constantly 
influenced  by  our  perceptions,  which  come  to  asso- 
ciate themselves  with  them,  so  do  the  spirits  of 
the  higher  stage  give  a  higher  significance  to  our 
spiritual  life  and  are  in  their  turn  influenced  by 
ours ;  though  at  the  same  time  they  live  their  own 
higher  and  freer  life,  in  their  relations  to  each 
other  and  to  the  higher  spirit. 

4.  As  our  reminiscences  require  a  less  sharply 
defined  place  in  our  brain  than  our  perceptions, 
so  are  the  spirits  of  the  higher  stage  less  closely 
tied  to  earthly  substance,  though  they,  like  our 
reminiscences,  cannot  entirely  do  without  it.  Now 
the   material    foundation   of   our   reminiscences, 
whatever  it  may  be,  grows  from  the  material  of 
our  perceptions  (the  images  of  outward  objects, 
for  instance,  produce  effects  in  our  brain,  with 
which,  when  perception  has  ceased,  reminiscence 
will  be  connected),  so  will  the  material  existence 
connected  with  the  spiritual  life  in  the  hereafter 
grow  from  our  present  existence. 

5.  Our  future  spheres  of  existence  though  all 
incorporated  in  the  same  great  body,  the  earth, 
will  not  disturb,  confuse  or  efface  each  other. 
Even  here  our  spheres  of  existence  necessarily 
cross  and  intersect  each  other,  as  the  means  of 
our  mutual  intercourse,  which  in  the  hereafter 


20  PREFACE. 


will  only  increase  in  intimacy,  variety  and  con- 
sciousness; and  in  our  brain  the  material  changes 
connected  with  our  reminiscences  cross  and  inter- 
sect each  other,  leaving  them  nevertheless  undis- 
turbed and  uneffaced. 

6.  As  in  our  present  life  the  body  which  at  any 
period  is  the  vehicle  of  our  mind,  has  grown  from 
the  body  which  was  its  vehicle  in  a  former  period, 
so  in  our  future  life  the  material  vehicle  of  our 
spiritual  existence  must  have  grown,  to  preserve 
our  individuality,  from  the  vehicle  of  our  present 
spiritual  existence.     This  condition  is  indeed  real- 
ized in  our  individual  sphere  of  actions,  in  the 
totality  of  which  everything  is  stored  up   that 
during  our  present  life  has  produced  any  effect 
in  our  body. 

7.  The  extinction  of  our  present  life  seems  to 
be  the  condition  for  the  transition  of  conscious- 
ness from  its  present  sphere  to  the  continuation  of 
it.     A  similar  antagonism  is  observable  in  the 
various  spheres  of  our  consciousness,  as  long  as 
it  is  connected  with,  and  therefore  confined  by, 
our  narrower  body. 

8.  The  moral  side  of  our  view  is  this,  that  it 
explains  how  every  man  produces  the  conditions 
of  a  blessed  or  unblessed  existence  hereafter,  in 
the  consequences  of  his  inward  and  outward  acts 
during  his  present  existence.     The  man  who  in 
this  life  tried  to  understand  the  divine  order  of 


PREFACE.  21 


things  and  to  act  in  accordance  with  it,  doing 
what  is  good,  within  himself  and  in  the  world, 
will  have  the  final  salutary  effects  of  it  as  a  re- 
ward; the  man  whose  thoughts  and  actions  have 
been  bad,  who  wrought  evil  in  this  world,  will 
have  to  bear  the  consequences  of  it  as  a  punish- 
ment— which  consequences  will  increase  on  him 
till  he  turn  from  his  evil  way. 

9.  Our  views  are  not  in  contradiction  with  the 
teachings  of  Christianity,  from  which  after  all 
they  deviate  only  in  some  less  essential  points. 
Pointing  out  the  real  meaning  of  certain  teach- 
ings, which  are  sometimes  taken  in  a  more  or  less 
figurative  or  symbolical  sense,  they  may  serve  to 
fortify  Christian  conviction  and  promote  Chris- 
tian life. 

The  Authors  Creed. 
(Zend-Avesta,  Chap.  XXXII.) 

I.  I  believe  in  one  God,  eternal,  infinite,  om- 
nipresent, all-mighty,  all-knowing,  all-loving,  all- 
just,  all-merciful,  through  whom  comes  and  goes 
and  has  its  being  whatever  there  comes  and  goes 
and  is,  who  lives  and  moves  and  has  his  being  in 
everything  as  everything  in  him;  who  knows 
everything  that  is  known  and  can  be  known ;  who 
loves  all  his  creatures  in  one  as  he  loves  himself; 
who  does  will  what  is  good  and  does  not  will 
what  is  evil;  who  in  the  course  of  time  directs 


22  PREFACE. 


everything  to  its  own  good  end;  who  is  merciful 
even  to  the  wicked,  so  as  to  make  his  very  punish- 
ment the  means  of  his  improvement  and  final 
salvation. 

2.  I  believe  that  God  has  bestowed   certain 
parts  or  sides  of  his  spiritual  essence  on  individ- 
ual creatures,  this  earth  being  one  of  them,  filled 
with  its  own  spirit,  as  a  portion  of  the  divine 
essence,  which  again,  in  an  individual  manner, 
fills  all  the  individual  creatures  of  the  earth,  so 
that  all  of  us,  human  beings,  animals  and  plants, 
are  children  of  God  from  and  in  and  through 
this  spirit,  though  man  alone  enjoys  the  privilege, 
which  involves  a  duty,  of  becoming  conscious  of 
his  eternal  father's  will  and  of  his  own  fellow- 
ship in  a  higher  spiritual  community. 

3.  I  believe  that  Christ,  son  of  God  from  and 
in  and  through  the  spirit  that  fills  the  earth  as  a 
portion  of  the  divine  essence,  is  not  only  one  of 
us,  but  above  us,  as  we  are  destined  through  his 
mediatorship   to   become   children   of   God    and 
attain  a  higher  spiritual  union  than  through  our 
mere  natural  birth. 

4.  I  believe  that  there  is  nothing  either  un- 
natural or  supernatural  in  God's  universal  order 
and  dispensation,  though  there  may  result  uncom- 
mon and  unexampled  effects  from  uncommon  and 
unexampled    causes,    so    that    in    the   whole   of 
Christ's  life  and  work   there  was  nothing  un- 


PREFACE.  23 


natural  or  supernatural,  only  that  he  was  the 
cause,  such  as  never  had  been  nor  ever  will  be 
again,  of  effects  that  never  had  been  but  will 
remain  and  go  on  growing  forever. 

5.  I  believe,  that  the  one  right  way  to  the 
salvation  of  mankind  is  by  true  love  of  God  and 
of  one's  neighbor,  truly  practised  as  it  has  been 
commanded  by  Christ,  and  that  cherishing  this 
love  and  practising  it  is  the  one  thing  whereby  in 
a  higher  sense  we  shall  be  made  of  one  spirit. 

6.  I  believe  that  the  teaching  and  community 
of  Christ  will  not  decrease,  but  increase,  so  that 
one  day  every  human  being  shall  belong  to  it; 
even  what  is  not  given  in  this  life,  shall  be  given 
hereafter. 

7.  I  believe  that  the  community  or  church  of 
Christ  is  the  body  that  is  forever  filled  with  his 
spirit,    and    that   the    teaching   of    Christ,    duly 
preached,  read,  interpreted,   received  and  acted 
upon,  with  baptism  and  eucharist  duly  admin- 
istered and  received,  are  the  principal  means  of 
keeping  Christ's  spirit  alive  in  his  community  or 
church  and  of  incorporating,  strengthening  and 
preserving  its  members. 

.8.  I  believe  in  a  resurrection  and  an  eternal 
life  of  man,  as  a  consequence  and  continuation 
of  his  present  life,  whereof  we  have  an  example 
in  Christ,  our  present  body  and  life  being  only  a 
small  seedcorn  of  a  freer  and  more  refined  body 


24  PREFACE. 


and  life,  which  shall  be  ours,  when  our  spirit  is 
to  live  in  a  house  not  made  by  hands,  which  will 
last  forever,  in  heaven,  where  everything  shall 
be  made  known  that  now  is  hidden  from  us,  and 
where  we  shall  see  clearly,  what  now  we  see  in 
part,  as  in  a  glass,  darkly,  and  where  those  that 
are  here  spiritually  united  in  and  through  Christ, 
shall  see  him  and  each  other  face  to  face.  I  be- 
lieve that  this  fleeting  present  life  is  a  prepara- 
tory stage  to  eternal  life,  and  that  everyone  in  his 
good  or  evil  intentions,  his  good  or  evil  deeds, 
produces  the  conditions  of  his  future  life,  that  his 
works  shall  follow  him  and  that  he  will  reap 
what  he  has  sown. 

9.  I  believe  that  the  purport  of  the  divine  com- 
mandments is  not  to  spoil  man's  pleasure  and 
happiness,  but  to  regulate  and  direct  his  will  and 
his  doings  to  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  great- 
est possible  happiness  of  them  all.     I  believe  that 
to  will  and  do  according  to  this  purpose  is  the 
duty  of  man,   and  that   thereby  he  will  be  in 
accordance  with  God's  commandments,  even  in 
cases  when  there  is  no  express  commandment. 

10.  I   believe    that   the   consequences   of   evil 
actions  are  such  that  in  the  course  of  time  they 
will    bring    about    their   own    punishment,    and 
those  of  good  actions,  finally  to  bring  about  their 
own  reward.     I  believe  that  the  consequences  of 
this  life  will  extend  to  the  hereafter,  where  such 


PREFACE.  25 


justice  will  be  fully  administered  as  was  only 
begun  or  postponed  here.  I  believe  that  the  pun- 
ishment of  the  wicked  and  the  reward  of  the  good, 
when  longer  postponed,  will  finally  come  on  the 
more  decidedly,  and  will  continue  to  increase 
till  the  bad  man  shall  have  been  compelled  to 
mend  his  way,  and  till  the  good  man  shall  have 
given  himself  up  completely  to  the  divine  mercy. 
I  believe  that  the  free  will  of  man  may  alter  the 
way  towards  that  end,  but  not  the  end  itself.  I 
believe  that  this  is  not  the  working  of  a  lifeless 
order  of  things,  but  that  this  order  is  due  to  the 
indwelling  of  the  divine  spirit. 

Fechner's  next  work,  Professor  Schlei- 
den  und  der  Mond  (1856)  was  more  than 
an  apology  of  his  Nanna;  it  was  a  new  at- 
tempt, repeated  in  the  books  On  the  Soul- 
Question  (1861)  and  The  Three  Motives 
and  Arguments  of  Belief  (Die  drei  Motive 
und  Grunde  des  Glaubens,  1863),  to  rouse 
the  world  from  its  materialistic  slumber — 
a  task  which  he  was  well  aware  would  re- 
quire "a  good  deal  of  breath.'*  When  Dar- 
win's views  began  to  attract  universal  at- 
tention, Fechner,  with  a  wonderful  sagacity 
and  a  comprehensiveness  of  mind  certainly 
not  frequent  in  a  man  of  his  age,  assimi- 


26  PREFACE. 


lated  them  into  his  own  system,  giving 
them  a  new  foundation,  and  at  the  same 
time  deriving  from  them  a  new  support  to 
his  own  theories.  This  was  done  in  his 
treatise — Some  Ideas  on  the  Creation  and 
Evolution  of  Organisms  (Einige  Ideen  zur 
Schopfungs,  und  Entwickelungsgeschichte 
der  Organismen — 1873).  In  The  Day- 
light-View  versus  the  Night-View  (Die 
Tagesansicht  gegeniiber  der  Nachtansicht 
— 1879)  he  gave  a  new  exposition  and 
apology  of  his  metaphysical  system,  the 
subject  being  essentially  the,  same  as  in 
Zend-Avesta)  re-arranged  and  condensed. 
It  appears  from  this  and  from  some  minor 
publications  of  his  latter  years,  that  to  the 
end  of  his  life  Fechner's  efforts  lay  invari- 
ably in  the  same  direction,  attempting  to 
bring  about  a  reconciliation,  so  much  need- 
ed in  our  days,  of  science  and  religion,  by 
looking  not  at  one  side  of  the  universe 
only,  but  diligently  examining  it  in  its  two 
aspects,  the  material  and  the  spiritual.  The 
scientist  still  seems  little  inclined  to  ap- 
proach the  latter ;  his  habits  of  thought  will 
not  permit  him  to  enter  upon  such  discus- 


PREFACE.  27 


sions.  On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  only 
natural,  as  Wundt  says,  that  "the  adher- 
ents of  modern  mysticism  should  have 
claimed  Fechner  as  one  of  their  own." 
Baron  Reichenbach,  the  discoverer  of  Od, 
engaged  his  interest,  "almost  by  violence," 
till  Fechner  yielded  to  attend  some  of  his 
experiments.  In  1877,  when  Henry  Slade 
was  in  Germany,  Fechner  received  many 
an  invitation  to  join  spiritistic  seances. 
Professor  Zollner  was  his  friend,  and  he 
could  not  refuse  to  be  present,  with  W. 
Weber,  the  physicist,  and  Scheibner,  the 
mathematician,  during  the  experiments 
with  Slade,  which  Zollner  afterwards  de- 
scribed in  such  an  enthusiastic  tone  of  con- 
viction that  most  of  his  previous  admirers 
began  to  doubt  of  his  sanity  of  mind.  Fech- 
ner speaks  of  them  with  great  reserve.  He 
does  not  undertake  to  deny  from  the  out- 
set the  possibility  of  the  so-called  spiritistic 
phenomena,  but  he  yields  with  reluctance 
to  the  empirical  reasons  for  acknowledging 
their  reality.  His  daylight-view  can  exist 
with  or  without  spiritism,  but  he  would 
prefer  to  do  without  it.  "For  though  the 


28  PREFACE. 


two  views  coincide  in  some  material  points, 
so  that  our  view  may  find  and  to  some  de- 
gree does  find  a  support  in  spiritism,  the 
character  of  its  abnormal  phenomena  is  in- 
convenient and  prejudicial  to  the  quiet 
progress  of  reasoning."  At  the  same  time 
he  confesses  uthat,  to  be  insensible  to  the 
amount  and  weight  of  evidence  in  favor  of 
spiritistic  phenomena,  would  be  equivalent 
to  contempt  of  experimental  science.  If 
spiritism  be  preposterous,  the  means  com- 
monly adopted  to  refute  it  are  still  more 
preposterous.  On  other  occasions  infer- 
ences are  drawn  from  successful  experi- 
ments, neglecting  those  that  were  unsuc- 
cessful; in  the  case  of  spiritism,  however, 
its  adversaries  draw  their  inferences  en- 
tirely from  unsuccessful  experiments,  re- 
jecting those  that  were  successful.  On 
other  occasions  the  investigator  of  a  new 
field  of  experience  makes  it  his  object  to 
find  out  the  conditions  for  successful  ex- 
periment; in  the  present  case  the  condi- 
tions are  all  made  a  priori.  If  an  experi- 
ment made  in  the  dark  or  with  insufficient 
light  be  successful,  it  counts  for  nothing, 


PREFACE.  29 


because  the  result  was  not  obtained  by 
daylight;  but  if  it  is  successful  under  more 
favorable  conditions,  by  daylight,  it  counts 
again,  for  nothing,  owing  to  the  nature 
of  the  result."  Fechner  makes  this  re- 
mark, as  he  declares,  "not  from  sympathy 
with  spiritism,  but  from  a  sense  of  justice 
due  to  the  subject  and  the  persons;  for 
even  though  one  should  like  to  get  rid  of 
spiritism  at  any  expense,  it  ought  not  to  be 
done  at  the  expense  of  truth." 

The  considerate  way  in  which  Fechner, 
with  a  truly  philosophical  attitude,  express- 
es his  opinion  in  this  case,  and  which  in 
fact  never  seems  to  leave  him  in  his  re- 
searches, is  certainly  apt  to  secure  to  his 
views  a  more  than  transitory  appreciation. 

H.W. 

WEIMAR,  1905. 
On  Fechner's  Birthday. 


CHAPTER  I. 

MAN  lives  on  earth  not  once,  but  three 
times:  the  first  stage  of  his  life  is 
continual  sleep;  the  second,  sleep- 
ing and  waking  by  turns ;  the  third,  waking 
forever. 

In  the  first  stage  man  lives  in  the  dark, 
alone;  in  the  second,  he  lives  associated 
with,  yet  separated  from,  his  fellow-men, 
in  a  light  reflected  from  the  surface  of 
things;  in  the  third,  his  life,  interwoven 
with  the  life  of  other  spirits,  is  a  higher 
life  in  the  Highest  of  spirits,  with  the 
power  of  looking  to  the  bottom  of  finite 
things. 

In  the  first  stage  his  body  develops  itself 
from  its  germ,  working  out  organs  for  the 
second;  in  the  second  stage  his  mind  de- 
velops itself  from  its  germ,  working  out 
organs  for  the  third ;  in  the  third  the  divine 
germ  develops  itself,  which  lies  hidden  in 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  31 

every  human  mind,  to  direct  him,  through 
instinct,  through  feeling  and  believing,  to 
the  world  beyond,  which  seems  so  dark  at 
present,  but  shall  be  light  as  day  hereafter. 

The  act  of  leaving  the  first  stage  for  the 
second  we  call  Birth;  that  of  leaving  the 
second  for  the  third,  Death.  Our  way 
from  the  second  to  the  third  is  not  darker 
than  our  way  from  the  first  to  the  second : 
one  way  leads  us  forth  to  see  the  world  out- 
wardly ;  the  other,  to  see  it  inwardly. 

The  infant,  in  the  first  stage,  is  blind  and 
deaf  to  all  the  light  and  all  the  music  of  the 
second  stage,  and  having  to  leave  its  moth- 
er's womb  is  hard  and  painful,  and  at  a  cer- 
tain moment  of  its  birth  the  dissolution  of 
its  former  life  must  be  like  death  to  it,  be- 
fore it  wakens  to  its  new  existence.  In  the 
same  way  we,  in  our  present  life,  with  all 
our  consciousness  bound  up  within  this  nar- 
row body,  know  nothing  of  the  light,  the 
music,  the  freedom,  and  the  glory  of  the 
life  to  come,  and  often  feel  inclined  to  look 
upon  the  dark  and  narrow  passage  which 
leads  towards  it,  as  a  little  lane  with  "no 


32  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

thoroughfare"  to  it.  Whereas  death  is 
merely  a  second  birth  into  a  happier  life, 
when  the  spirit,  breaking  through  its  nar- 
row hull,  leaves  it  to  decay  and  vanish,  like 
the  infant's  hull  in  its  first  birth.  And 
then  all  those  things  which  we,  with  our 
present  senses,  can  only  know  from  the 
outside,  or,  as  it  were,  from  a  distance,  will 
be  penetrated  into,  and  thoroughly  known, 
by  us.  Then,  instead  of  passing  by  hills 
and  meadows,  instead  of  seeing  around  us 
all  the  beauties  of  spring,  and  grieving  that 
we  cannot  really  take  them  in,  as  they  are 
merely  external :  our  spirits  shall  enter  into 
those  hills  and  meadows,  to  feel  and  enjoy 
with  them  their  strength  and  their  pleasure 
in  growing;  instead  of  exerting  ourselves 
to  produce,  by  means  of  words  or  gestures, 
certain  ideas  in  the  minds  of  our  fellow- 
men,  we  shall  be  enabled  to  elevate  and 
influence  their  thoughts,  by  an  immediate 
intercourse  of  spirits,  which  are  no  longer 
separated,  but  rather  brought  together,  by 
their  bodies;  instead  of  being  visible  in  our 
bodily  shape  to  the  eyes  of  the  friends  we 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  33 

left  behind,  we  shall  dwell  in  their  inmost 
souls,  a  part  of  them,  thinking  and  acting 
in  them  and  through  them. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  infant,  when  in  its  mother's 
womb,  has  merely  a  body-spirit — 
the  Formative  Principle.  Its  ac- 
tions are  limited  to  growing,  to  producing 
and  developing  its  several  limbs  and  or- 
gans. It  does  not  feel  them  as  its  own 
property,  it  does  not  use  them,  nor  is  it 
able  to  use  them.  A  beautiful  eye,  a  beau- 
tiful mouth  are  merely  beautiful  objects  to 
the  infant;  it  has  produced  them  without 
being  aware  that  one  day  they  shall  be 
useful  parts  of  its  own  self.  They  are 
made  for  a  world  to  come  whereof  it 
knows  nothing,  fashioned  through  some 
mysterious  impulse,  the  origin  of  which 
must  be  traced  back  to  the  organization  of 
its  mother.1  As  soon,  however,  as  the 
infant,  matured  for  the  second  stage  of 

*For  the  physiologist  I  would  express  it  more  dis- 
tinctly, thus.  The  formative  principle  of  the  infant 
lies,  before  its  birth,  not  in  those  parts  which  are  to 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  35 

life,  leaves  its  primary  organs  behind,  it 
grows  self-conscious,  feels  itself  an  inde- 
pendent unity  of  all  its  self-created  organs : 
the  eye,  the  ear,  the  mouth  henceforth  are 
its  own;  and  having  produced  them 
through  some  innate  impulse,  unconscious- 
ly, it  now  learns  to  use  them,  rejoicing  in 
its  strength;  a  world  of  light,  of  colors, 
sounds,  odors,  tastes,  reveals  itself  through 
the  organs  produced  for  those  purposes. 

Now,  the  relation  of  the  first  stage  of 
life  to  the  second  will  recur,  in  a  climax,  in 
the  relation  of  the  second  stage  to  the 
third.  In  a  way  similar  to  the  one  just 
alluded  to,  all  our  volitions  and  actions  in 
this  world  are  intended  to  produce  an 
organism,  which  in  the  world  to  come  we 
shall  perceive  and  use  as  our  own  new 
Self.  All  the  mental  influences,  all  the 
results  due  to  the  actions  of  a  person  in  his 

continue  living  after  its  birth,  but  rather  in  those  which 
in  birth,  must  be  left  behind  and  decay,  as  the  body  of 
man  decays  in  death  (placenta  cum  funiculo  umbilical!, 
velamentis  ovi,  eorumque  liquoribus)  ;  thus  the  human 
being,  born  into  the  world,  grows  out  of  the  infant's 
activity,  as  a  continuation  of  it. 


36  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

lifetime,  which  spread  all  over  mankind 
and  all  over  the  earth,  are,  even  at  present, 
bound  up  together  by  a  mysterious,  invis- 
ible bond,  thus  forming  a  person's  spiritual 
organs,  fashioned  during  his  life  and  com- 
bined into  a  spiritual  body,  an  organism  of 
continually  active  powers  and  effects,  of 
which,  though  indissolubly  connected  with 
his  present  existence,  he  has  at  present  no 
consciousness. 

In  the  moment  of  death,  however,  when 
man  has  to  part  with  those  organs  in  which 
his  powers  of  acting  lay,  he  will,  all  at 
once,  become  conscious  of  all  the  ideas  and 
effects  which,  produced  by -his  manifold 
actions  in  life,  will  continue  living  and 
working  in  this  world,  and  will  form,  as 
an  organic  offspring  of  an  individual  stem, 
an  organic  individuality  which  only  then 
becomes  alive,  self-conscious,  self-active, 
ready  to  act  through  the  human  and  nat- 
ural world,  of  its  own  will  and  power. 

Whatever  a  person  contributes,  in  his 
life,  towards  creating,  transforming,  or 
preserving  the  ideas  pervading  the  human 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  37 

and  natural  world,  is  his  own  imperishable 
portion,  able  to  act  for  itself  in  the  third 
stage  of  life,  though  the  body  to  which, 
during  the  second  stage,  it  was  inherent, 
be  long  since  decayed.  The  thoughts  and 
actions  of  so  many  millions  that  are  gone, 
are  not  gone  with  them,  neither  shall  they 
be  obliterated  by  the  thoughts  and  actions 
of  the  many  millions  that  are  to  come  after 
them;  in  them  and  with  them  they  shall 
grow,  and  act,  and  impel  them  towards  one 
great  aim  unseen  by  themselves. 

We  are  inclined  to  look  upon  this  ideal 
continuation  of  our  lives  as  a  mere  ab- 
straction, and  to  consider  the  continued 
influence  which  the  spirits  of  the  dead  ex- 
ercise on  the  minds  of  the  living  as  an  idle 
fantasy.  So  it  seems  to  us,  because  we 
lack  the  appropriate  senses  wherewith  to 
perceive  the  spirits  of  the  third  stage,  in 
their  real  existence,  pervading  the  depths 
of  the  Universe :  we  only  perceive  the  ties 
which  unite  their  existence  with  our  own, 
viz. :  those  very  ideas  which  they  left  be- 
hind for  us  to  share  with  them.  The  circle 


38  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

of  waves  which  a  falling  stone  produces  on 
a  surface  of  water  calls  forth  other  circles 
round  every  rock  rising  above  the  surface 
within  its  reach;  for  all  that  it  remains  one 
continual  circle,  producing  and  encircling 
all  the  rest,  whereas  the  rocks  perceive  it, 
so  to  speak,  only  in  part,  as  a  fragment. 
We  are  such  rocks  ourselves,  unconscious 
of  the  encircling  waves,  though,  unlike 
those  fixed  objects,  we  produce,  every  one 
of  us,  a  continual  circle  of  actions  all 
around  us,  encircling  and  crossing  those 
produced  by  our  fellow-men. 

In  fact,  every  person,  in  his  lifetime, 
takes  hold  of,  and  grows  into  the  minds  of 
others,  by  his  words  and  works,  spoken, 
written,  or  acted. 

While  Goethe  was  still  alive,  thousands 
of  contemporaries  bore  within  them  some 
sparks  from  the  light  of  his  genius,  which 
afterwards  kindled  up  into  new  light. 
While  Napoleon  was  still  alive,  his  power- 
ful genius  exercised  its  influence  on  the 
whole  generation  almost;  and  when  the 
one  and  the  other  died,  the  germs  which 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  39 

had  fallen  into  other  minds,  did  not  die 
with  them,  they  grew,  and  developed  them- 
selves, constituting  in  their  total  an  in- 
dividual being,  as  their  origin  had  been 
from  an  individual.  And  these  new  in- 
dividual beings  we  must  assume  to  be 
provided,  though  in  a  manner  incompre- 
hensible to  us,  with  self-consciousness,  as 
well  in  their  present  state  as  they  were 
before.  Goethe,  Schiller,  Napoleon,  Luth- 
er, are  still  alive  among  us,  self-conscious 
individuals  thinking  and  acting  with  us,  in 
a  higher  state  of  development  now,  no 
longer  bound  up  within  a  narrow  body, 
but  pervading  the  world  which  they  in 
their  lifetime  instructed,  edified,  delighted, 
ruled,  and  producing  effects  even  far  sur- 
passing those  of  which  we  are  generally 
aware. 

The  most  striking  instance  of  a  great 
spirit  living  and  working  on  through  the 
ages  we  see  in  Christ.  You  must  not  think 
it  an  empty  saying,  that  He  liveth  in  those 
who  believe  in  Him.  Every  true  Christian 
carries  Him  within  him,  not  in  a  symbolical 


40  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

meaning,  but  in  life  and  reality;  every  one 
that  thinks  and  acts  according  to  His  mind 
is  a  partaker  in  Him;  for  it  is  the  spirit  of 
Christ  that  causes  in  him  such  thinking  and 
acting.  He  is  diffused  through  all  the 
members  of  His  body,  the  Church,  and 
they  are  all  united  through  His  spirit,  like 
apples  clinging  to  a  tree,  or  branches  at- 
tached to  a  vine :  "For  as  the  body  is  one, 
and  hath  many  members,  and  all  the  mem- 
bers of  that  one  body,  being  many,  are  one 
body:  so  also  is  Christ."  ( 1  Cor.  xii.  12.) 
And  like  those  great  and  this  Greatest  of 
spirits,  every  true  worker  shall  waken  in 
the  world  to  come  with  an  individuality,  an 
^organism  of  his  own  making,  comprising 
thousands  of  effects  and  productions,  filling 
a  narrower  or  wider  sphere,  endowed  with 
more  or  less  power  of  growth  and  develop- 
ment, even  as  their  spirits  in  |this  life 
moved  more  or  less  actively  in  their 
spheres  of  labor.  The  man  that  has  been 
groveling  on  the  ground,  employing  his 
mental  faculties  only  in  moving,  feeding, 
pampering  his  body,  will  become  a  very 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  41 

insignificant  being  hereafter.  The  richest 
will  then  be  the  poorest,  if  he  has  only 
used  his  money  that  he  may  not  have  to 
use  his  powers,  and  the  poorest  may  turn 
out  the  richest,  if  he  has  used  his  powers 
to  do  his  duty  in  this  world.  For  what- 
ever a  man  uses  and  puts  out  at  present 
will  be  his  own  hereafter;  but  the  pound 
that  was  kept  and  laid  up  in  a  napkin  will 
be  taken  away  entirely. 

The  mysteriousness  of  our  present  in- 
ward life,  the  thirst  after  truth,  which 
sometimes  is  of  but  little  avail  here  below, 
the  desire  of  every  honest  mind  to  work 
for  the  good  of  posterity,  the  sense  of 
regret  and  trouble  of  mind  caused  by  the 
consciousness  of  a  wicked  deed,  even 
though  unaccompanied  by  present  disad- 
vantages, all  such  phenomena  arise  from 
»a  dim  presentiment  of  what  our  fate  will 
be  hereafter,  when  we  shall  reap  the  fruit 
of  our  slightest  and  most  secret  acts. 

Behold  in  this  the  wonderful  justice  of 
the  Universe,  leaving  it  to  every  being  to 
prepare  for  himself  the  conditions  of  his 


42  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

future  existence.  There  are  no  outward 
rewards  and  punishments  for  our  actions, 
there  is  no  heaven  or  hell — in  the  popular 
meaning  of  the  word,  with  Christians, 
Jews  and  Gentiles — for  the  spirits  of  the 
dead  to  ascend  or  descend  to,  by  a  leap  as 
it  were;  but  there  is  no  dead  stop  either, 
no  absorption  of  the  soul  into  the  universe : 
the  spirit  of  man  has  to  go  through  his 
great  climacteric  disease,  death;  after 
which  his  development  will  continue,  in  and 
for  a  higher  life  on  this  earth  of  ours.  The 
foundations  of  that  higher  development, 
in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  creation, 
must  be  sought  for  on  a  lower  stage ;  and 
according  as  a  man,  in  this  life,  has  been 
good  or  bad,  has  acted  nobly  or  meanly, 
worked  hard  or  neglected  his  work,  he  will 
find,  in  after-life,  an  organism  of  his  own, 
healthy  or  unhealthy,  beautiful  or  hateful, 
strong  or  weak;  his  self-chosen  way  of  act- 
ing in  this  world  will  determine  his  rela- 
tion to  other  spirits,  his  faculties  and  tal- 
ents, his  whole  destiny  during  his  develop- 
ment in  that  other  world. 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  43 

"Let  us  then  be  up  and  doing  I"  For  he 
who  walks  at  a  slow  pace  here  will  be  lame 
there ;  he  who  opens  not  his  eyes  here  will 
be  weak-sighted  there ;  who  practises  deceit 
and  wickedness  will  feel  at  variance  with 
all  the  good  and  faithful  spirits,  and  that 
feeling  will  be  so  painful  in  him  as  to  impel 
him  even  in  the  other  world,  to  amend  the 
evil  he  did  in  this  world;  nor  will  he  find 
rest  and  peace  until  his  least  and  last 
offence  be  repented  and  atoned  for.  When 
other  spirits  rest  in  peace  with  God,  par- 
taking of  His  thoughts,  the  wicked  ones 
will  go  about  restless,  through  the  sorrows 
and  changes  of  earthly  life,  and  their  spir- 
itual disorder  will  infect  other  men  with 
error  and  superstition,  with  folly  and  vice ; 
and  while  they,  in  the  third  world,  lag 
behind  on  the  way  towards  perfection,  they 
will  keep  back  those  in  whom  they  live,  on 
their  way  from  the  second  world  to  the 
third. 

Hence,  meanness,  wickedness,  untruth, 
may  hold  their  sway  for  a  time  against 
generosity,  honesty,  godliness;  but  in  the 


44  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

end  they  will  be  overcome  by  the  increas- 
ing power  of  the  good,  they  will  be  brought 
to  nought  through  their  own  deeds,  by  the 
increasing  evil  consequent  thereon,  and 
nothing  shall  remain  in  any  man's  spirit 
that  is  false  and  vile  and  impure ;  only  what 
is  true,  good,  and  beautiful,  is  to  be  our 
eternal,  imperishable  portion,  of  which  if 
there  be  but  a  mustard-seed  in  any  of  us 
(and  there  can  be  no  human  being  utterly 
destitute  of  it),  all  dross  and  chaff  which 
are  yet  around  it  will  be  consumed  in  the 
purging  fire  of  our  third  life,  a  fire  of  tor- 
ment for  the  wicked  only — and  in  the  end, 
be  it  ever  so  late,  it  will  grow  up  into  a 
noble  tree. 

And  you,  too,  rejoice,  whose  spirit  is 
being  tried  and  refined  here  below  by  grief 
and  suffering.  You  are  only  learning  to 
be  patient  and  persevering  in  removing 
every  obstacle  which  would  hinder  your 
progress,  and  on  being  born  into  a  higher 
life  will  find  yourself  the  better  enabled  to 
make  up  for  all  it  has  been  your  lot  on 
earth  to  leave  undone. 


CHAPTER  III. 

MAN  uses  many  means  to  obtain  one 
end,  God  makes  one  means  serve 
many  ends. 

The  plant  thinks  it  is  here  merely  for  its 
own  sake,  intended  to  grow,  to  toss  in  the 
wind,  to  drink  in  light  and  air,  to  prepare 
colors  and  odors  as  an  ornament  for  itself, 
to  play  with  bees  and  butterflies.  And 
it  is  here  for  itself,  no  doubt,  but  for  the 
earth  as  well,  a  tiny  organ  of  the  earth 
for  light,  air,  and  water,  to  meet  there  and 
work  together  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
terrestrial  system ;  it  is  intended  to  breathe 
for  the  earth,  to  make  a  verdant  garment 
for  the  earth,  to  prepare  food,  raiment, 
and  fuel,  for  man  and  beast. 

Man  thinks  he  is  here  merely  for  his 
own  sake,  intended  to  enjoy  himself,  to 
toil  and  labor  for  his  growth  in  body  and 
mind.  And  he  is  here  for  himself,  no 
doubt,  but  his  body  is  a  dwelling-place  for 


46  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

higher  spirits  as  well,  to  enter  into,  to 
commune  and  work  together  there,  and 
thus  to  direct  his  mind  to  think  and  feel  in 
various  ways,  and  help  him  to  be  fit  for 
the  life  to  come. 

Man's  mind  is  therefore,  simultaneous- 
ly, his  own  property,  and  the  property  of 
those  higher  spirits;  and  whatever  comes 
to  pass  in  it,  equally  belongs  to  both  sides, 
only  in  a  different  sense  and  manner. 


Thus,  in  our  diagram,  the  many-colored 
star  in  the  middle  stands  for  itself,  an  inde- 
pendent individual  figure,  whose  several 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  47 

rays  shoot  from,  and  are  kept  together  by 
a  common  centre ;  and  again  that  same  star 
appears  to  be  formed  by  the  six  single- 
colored  circles,  each  of  which  is  again  an 
independent  individual  figure,  so  that  every 
ray  belongs  to  the  central  star  as  well  as  to 
the  intersecting  circles.  Behold  in  this 
not  a  likeness,  but  a  symbol,  of  the  human 
soul. 

We  often  wonder  whence  such  a  thought 
came  into  our  minds.  Some  longing,  or 
some  melancholy,  or  happy  mood  will  come 
over  us  we  know  not  how  or  why.  An  in- 
ward voice  persuades  us  to  act,  or  exhorts 
us  to  forbear  acting,  though  all  the  time  we 
are  not  conscious  of  any  motive  of  our  own 
tending  one  way  or  other.  This  is  the 
influence  of  spirits  entering  into  us,  think- 
ing and  acting  in  us  from  centres  different 
from  our  own.  Such  influence  is  still  more 
striking  in  certain  abnormal  conditions  of 
the  mind — in  clairvoyance  or  mental  dis- 
order— when  the  relation  of  mutual  de- 
pendence has  been  decided  in  their  favor, 
making  us  entirely  passive  under  their  in- 


48  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

fluence,  without  any  reaction  on  our  own 
part.  As  long,  however,  as  our  mind  is 
awake  and  healthy  it  cannot  become  a  mere 
plaything,  without  a  will  of  its  own,  of  the 
spirits  that  have  grown  into  it  and  become 
a  living  part  of  it.  For  such  a  healthy 
human  mind  is  an  invisible  life-centre  of 
spiritual  attraction,  a  connecting  link  for 
divers  spirits,  who  are  thus  enabled  to  hold 
communion  with  each  other,  and  to  engen- 
der thoughts  within  us.  They  do  not, 
however,  create  the  mind,  which  is  the  in- 
born property  of  each  individual  person, 
with  free-will,  self-determination,  self- 
consciousness,  reasoning  power,  and  all 
other  mental  faculties  comprised  therein. 
At  the  time  of  our  birth,  it  is  true,  all  these 
faculties  are  folded  up  as  in  a  germ,  look- 
ing forward  to  being  developed  into  an  or- 
ganism of  individual  life  and  reality. 
Now,  upon  our  entering  this  life  those 
spirits  draw  near  on  all  sides,  trying  to 
make  use  of  our  faculties  for  themselves, 
in  order  to  increase  their  own  sphere  of 
activity,  in  a  certain  direction,  and  if  they 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  49 

succeed  in  doing  so,  a  new  impulse  in  that 
same  direction  is  given  to  our  own  mind 
in  its  development. 

Those  ingrown  spirits,  in  their  turn,  are 
subject,  though  in  a  different  way,  to  the 
influence  of  the  human  will.  They  in- 
fluence and  direct  a  man's  mind,  they  also 
receive  new  impressions  from  the  store  of 
his  spiritual  life.  In  a  mind  harmoniously 
developed,  none  of  these  influences  has  the 
mastery  over  the  others.  For  every  con- 
comitant spirit  shares  only  a  certain  part 
of  his  own  self  with  one  individual  person; 
hence  the  will  of  that  person  can  exercise 
only  a  limited  influence  on  him  whose 
sphere  lies  for  the  greater  part  without 
him;  and  as  every  human  mind  forms  a 
rally-point  for  many  spirits,  it  can  only  be 
liable  to  a  limited  influence  from  each  of 
them.  If  a  man,  however,  of  his  own 
choice  would  submit  entirely  to  be  guided 
by  them,  he  would  lose  his  control  over 
their  influences. 

There  are  spirits  opposed  to  each  other, 
so  that  their  presence  in  the  same  human 


50  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

mind  is  incompatible;  therefore  the  good 
and  the  evil  spirits,  the  true  and  the  false, 
dispute  with  each  other  the  possession  of 
our  souls.  The  inward  strife  which  so  fre- 
quently we  experience  is  just  such  a  strug- 
gle of  spirits  trying  to  take  possession  of 
our  will,  our  reason,  in  short,  our  whole 
inward  life.  As  a  person  feels  the  agree- 
ment of  the  spirits  within  him,  in  peace, 
quiet,  and  harmony  of  his  own  self,  he  also 
feels  their  strife,  in  inward  trouble,  con- 
fusion, doubt  and  despondency.  But  man 
need  not  become  an  inert  and  restless  prey 
for  the  stronger  spirits  in  that  combat;  he 
stands  with  his  own  active  powers,  in  the 
midst  of  the  contending  elements  each  of 
which  tries  to  draw  him  to  itself;  he  may, 
in  such  strife,  side  with  and  help  that  party 
he  chooses,  and  may  thus  decide  the  victory 
even  in  favor  of  the  weaker  side,  adding 
his  own  strength  to  that  of  the  spirit 
against  the  stronger  ones.  Thus  his  in- 
dividuality, his  own  self,  will  remain  unen- 
dangered  as  long  as  he  preserves  his  inborn 
strength  and  freedom,  nor  tires  of  using 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  51 

them.  If,  nevertheless,  he  is  led  on  by 
evil  spirits,  it  is  from  the  difficulty  he  may 
find  in  using  his  own  inward  strength;  and 
so,  to  become  bad,  it  is  enough  to  be  care- 
less and  lazy. 

The  better  a  man's  character  is,  the 
more  easy  it  will  be  for  him  to  become  still 
better;  and  the  worse  he  is,  the  more  easily 
he  will  be  utterly  ruined.  For  a  good  man 
has  received  many  good  spirits  within  him- 
self, who,  uniting  their  powers  with  his, 
will  save  him  some  effort  in  getting  rid  of 
the  evil  spirits  that  have  remained  in  him 
or  approach  him.  Therefore,  doing  good 
does  not  weary  a  good  man;  he  has  his 
good  spirits  to  help  him,  whereas  a  wicked 
man,  to  follow  any  good  intentions  he  may 
have  formed,  must  first  overcome,  by  his 
own  efforts,  the  evil  spirits  that  resist  his 
intentions. 

Besides,  kindred  spirits  will  find,  and  as- 
sociate with,  each  other,  fleeing  from  con- 
trary ones,  if  not  forced  to  stay.  The  good 
spirits  within  us  call  other  good  spirits 
around  us,  and  the  evil  spirits  within  us 


52  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

attract  the  evil  ones.  Pure  spirits  rejoice 
to  come  and  live  in  a  pure  mind,  but  out- 
ward evil  takes  hold  of  the  evil  within  us. 
If  good  spirits  in  increasing  numbers  take 
their  abode  in  our  soul,  the  last  devil  that 
had  lingered  there  will  soon  flee  away,  they 
are  no  fit  company  for  him;  and  thus  the 
soul  of  the  good  man  becomes  a  pure  heav- 
enly dwelling  for  blessed  spirits,  abiding 
there  in  sweet  company.  But  even  good 
spirits  when  they  see  the  impossibility  of 
reclaiming  a  soul  from  the  predominant 
evil  ones,  will  desert  it,  and  so  it  becomes 
a  hell,  a  place  full  of  the  torment  of  the 
damned.  For  the  pangs  of  conscience, 
and  the  trouble  and  restlessness  in  the 
minds  of  the  wicked  are  torments  not  only 
felt  by  themselves,  but  by  the  evil  spirits 
within  them  as  well,  even  with  more  in- 
tensity. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  higher  spirits,  living  as  they  are 
not  in  an  individual  man,  but  each 
living  and  acting  in  many,  are  spir- 
itual bonds  between  those  persons,  uniting 
them  all  in  the  same  belief,  the  same  truth, 
the  same  moral  or  political  tendency.  All 
the  persons  who  have  any  spiritual  fellow- 
ship between  them,  belong  to  the  body  of 
one  spirit,  and  as  co-ordinate  members  of 
it,  work  out  the  ideas  which  they  have 
received  from  that  spirit.  Sometimes  an 
idea  lives  at  one  time  in  a  whole  nation, 
a  great  number  of  people  are  moved  to 
one  great  common  enterprise.  There  is  a 
mighty  spirit  coming  over  them  all,  pene- 
trating them  all.  Such  universal  influences, 
however,  are  not  only  brought  about  by 
the  spirits  of  the  dead;  also  numberless 
new-born  ideas  of  the  living  influence  those 
living  around  them ;  but  all  the  ideas  which 
a  living  person  sends  forth  into  the  world 


54  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

are  also  elements  and  members  of  his  fu- 
ture spiritual  organism. 

Now,  wherever  two  kindred  spirits  meet 
on  earth,  growing  into  one  through  their 
common  qualities,  and  influencing  and  en- 
riching one  another  through  their  different 
qualities,  the  communities,  nations,  or  gen- 
erations, to  which  they  formerly  belonged 
individually,  enter  into  spiritual  com- 
munion as  well,  increasing  thereby  the  men- 
tal stores  and  powers  of  each  other.  Thus 
the  development  of  spiritual  life  in  the 
third  stage  is  closely  connected  with  the  de- 
velopment and  progress  of  mankind.  The 
gradual  formation  and  growth  of  states, 
the  progress  of  science  and  art,  of  com- 
merce and  trade,  the  development  of  all 
these  spheres  into  larger  and  larger  bodies 
harmoniously  organized,  is  the  conse- 
quence of  numberless  spirits  living  and 
moving  among  men  and  growing  together 
into  greater  spiritual  organisms. 

How  could  it  be  possible  for  all  those 
important  spheres  of  life  to  take  shape  on 
great  immutable  principles,  if  they  were 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  55 

to  rely  on  the  confused  selfish  actions  of 
individuals  too  short-sighted  to  see  from 
the  centre  to  the  circumference,  or  from 
the  circumference  to  the  centre?  How 
could  it  be  possible,  were  not  this  activity 
influenced  by  higher  spirits,  who  see  clear- 
ly through  the  whole  system,  and,  crowd- 
ing round  the  common  divine  centre,  and 
uniting  their  divine  elements,  direct  men, 
between  them,  towards  higher  aims? 

But  as  there  is  a  harmony  of  spirits  kind- 
ly meeting  and  helping  each  other,  so  is 
there  also  a  conflict  of  spirits,  in  which  all 
earthly  and  finite  concerns  must  in  the  end 
destroy  one  another,  leaving  the  things 
eternal  to  survive  in  their  purity.  Symp- 
toms of  this  conflict  may  also  be  observed 
in  the  human  world,  in  the  antagonism  of 
systems,  the  hatred  of  parties,  the  wars 
and  revolutions  between  sovereigns  and 
nations. 

The  majority  of  men  stand  amid  these 
great  spiritual  movements,  with  blind 
faith,  blind  obedience,  blind  hatred  and 
fury,  neither  hearing  with  their  own  ears 


56  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

nor  seeing  with  their  own  eyes,  but  directed 
by  other  spirits  towards  ends  and  aims  of 
which  they  know  nothing,  allowing  them- 
selves to  be  led  on  through  misery,  slavery, 
and  death,  following  the  impulse  of  those 
higher  spirits  like  a  herd  of  cattle. 

On  the  other  side,  there  are  men  who, 
both  acting  and  directing,  influence  the 
movement  with  clear  consciousness  and  in- 
ward independence.  But,  after  all,  they 
are  only  voluntary  means  to  great  pre- 
destined ends,  whose  free  actions  may  in- 
deed determine  the  way  and  rate  of  the 
progress,  but  not  its  end  and  object.  Those 
men  who  have  accomplished  great  things 
in  the  world,  were  enabled  to  do  so  by 
their  insight  into  the  spiritual  tendency  of 
the  period  in  which  they  lived,  and  they 
succeeded  because  they  made  their  free 
acting  and  thinking  agree  with  that  ten- 
dency, while  other  men,  perhaps  just  as 
great  and  sincere,  failed,  because  they  op- 
posed that  tendency.  That  first  class  of 
men  were  elected  by  the  Spirit  who  knows 
which  ways  are  best  for  which  ends,  to  be 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  57 

new  centres  for  his  moving  powers,  not  in 
the  manner  of  blind  tools,  but  of  living  in- 
struments serving  his  wisdom  and  justice, 
of  their  own  free  will  and  with  their  own 
powers  of  intellect.  It  is  not  the  slave 
under  the  taskmaster  that  does  the  better 
work.  And  what  they  begin  to  work  in 
the  service  of  God  beneath,  they  will  con- 
tinue hereafter,  when  they  are  partakers 
of  His  heavenly  kingdom. 


CHAPTER  V. 

ON  many  occasions  when  the  spirits  of 
the  living  and  dead  meet,  they  may 
both  be  unconscious  of  the  meeting; 
or  the  consciousness  may  be  on  one  side 
only — who  is  there  that  could  follow  or 
fathom  such  intercourse !  So  let  it  be 
understood  that,  whenever  we  speak  of 
their  meeting  each  other,  we  mean  that 
they  meet  consciously,  and  whenever  we 
speak  of  the  presence  of  the  dead,  we  mean 
that  they  are  present  consciously. 

There  is  one  means  of  meeting  con- 
sciously for  the  living  and  the  dead:  it  is 
the  memory  of  the  living  for  the  dead. 
To  direct  our  attention  to  the  dead  is  to 
attract  their  attention  towards  us,  just  as 
an  outward  impression  on  a  living  person 
will  direct  his  attention  to  the  place  where 
it  acts  upon  him. 

Our  memory  of  the  dead  is  indeed  noth- 
ing but  a  consequence  of  their  own  con- 
scious life  beneath;  a  consequence  brought 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  59 

to  our  consciousness;  but  their  whole  life 
in  the  hereafter  is  made  up  of  the  conse- 
quences of  their  present  life. 

Even  when  one  living  person  thinks  of 
another,  it  may  cause  some  influence  on  his 
mind;  but  it  is  of  no  effect,  as  his  conscious- 
ness is  held  within  the  bonds  of  his  earthly 
frame.  But  consciousness  set  free  by 
death  seeks  its  own  place,  yielding  to  the 
influences  exercised  upon  it  the  more  easily 
and  decidedly,  the  more  easily  and  decid- 
edly those  influences  have  been  exercised 
before. 

A  stroke  in  the  physical  world  is  always 
felt  double,  by  him  that  strikes  and  by  him 
that  is  struck :  so  a  stroke  of  consciousness, 
produced  by  thinking  of  a  dead  person,  is 
connected  with  a  double  sensation.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  think  of  the  share  only  which 
our  present  life  has  in  that  mental  act,  un- 
mindful of  the  share  of  the  life  hereafter : 
a  mistake  and  neglect  which  cannot  remain 
without  their  consequences. 

If  a  lover  has  lost  his  beloved  one,  a 
husband  his  wife,  a  child  its  mother,  it  is  in 


60  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

vain  for  them  to  look  to  distant  heavens 
for  the  piece  torn  off  their  own  lives,  strain- 
ing their  eyes  and  stretching  out  their 
hands  into  vacancy  for  that  which  has 
never  been  really  taken  away  from  them; 
it  is  only  the  thread  of  bodily  communica- 
tion that  is  broken ;  the  intercourse  through 
their  outer  senses,  whereby  they  both  un- 
derstood each  other,  has  given  way  to  an 
immediate  connection  through  their  inner 
senses,  though  they  have  not  yet  learned  to 
understand  it. 

I  saw  a  mother  once  looking  anxiously 
about  the  house  and  garden  for  her  own 
living  child  which  all  the  time  she  was 
carrying  in  her  arms.  A  greater  mistake 
than  hers  is  the  mistake  of  her  who  will 
look  for  her  dead  child  in  some  distant 
space,  whereas  it  would  suffice  to  look  into 
her  own  self  to  find  it.  And  if  she  does 
not  find  it  there  entire,  was  it  entire,  was  it 
all  her  own,  strictly  speaking,  while  she 
carried  it  in  her  arms?  It  is  true,  the  ad- 
vantages of  outward  intercourse,  of  out- 
ward words,  looks,  and  care-taking  are  lost 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  61 

to  both;  the  advantages  of  an  inward  inter- 
course have  only  begun  now,  if  she  would 
only  recognize  that  there  is  such  an  inward 
intercourse  and  see  the  advantages  it  has. 
Nobody  will  speak  to  or  shake  hands  with 
a  person  whom  he  supposes  to  be  absent; 
but  if  you  once  know  better,  and  have 
learned  to  see  in  a  clearer  light,  there  will 
be  for  you  a  new  life  of  the  living  with 
their  dead,  and  the  dead  will  gain  by  this 
knowledge  no  less  than  the  living. 

If  you  think  of  a  dead  person  earnestly 
and  intensely,  not  only  the  thought  of  him 
or  her,  but  the  dead  person  himself  will  be 
in  your  mind  immediately.  You  may  in- 
wardly conjure  him,  he  must  come  to  you; 
you  may  hold  him,  he  must  stay  with  you, 
if  you  only  fix  your  thoughts  upon  him. 
Think  of  him  in  love  or  in  hatred,  he  will 
be  sure  to  feel  it ;  think  of  him  with  strong 
love,  with  stronger  hatred,  he  will  feel  it 
the  more  strongly.  Up  to  this  you  have 
had  your  memories  of  the  dead,  now  you 
know  the  use  of  them;  henceforth  you  will 
be  able  at  will  to  make  a  dead  person 


62  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

happy  or  miserable,  through  thinking  of 
him,  to  reconcile  yourself  to  him  or  quarrel 
with  him,  consciously  for  him  as  well  as  for 
yourself.  Do  so,  then,  but  always  for  a 
good  purpose,  and  take  care  that  the  mem- 
ory which  you  leave  behind  one  day  may  be 
to  your  own  advantage. 

Blessed  the  man  who  left  behind  him  a 
store  of  love,  of  respect,  and  veneration,  in 
the  memory  of  men.  What  he  left  behind 
in  his  present  life  he  will  gain  after  death, 
acquiring  a  comprehensive  consciousness  of 
all  that  is  thought  of  him  by  those  who  re- 
main behind;  he  will  thus  carry  home  the 
bushel  of  which  he  had  but  single  grains 
to  count  in  his  lifetime.  Such  are  the 
treasures  which  we  are  bidden  to  lay  up  for 
heaven. 

Woe  to  the  man  whom  curses  and  exe- 
crations, a  memory  of  terror,  follow! 
What  followed  him  in  this  life  will  over- 
take him  in  death:  this  is  part  of  the  hell 
that  awaits  him.  Each  cry  of  misery  that 
is  sent  after  him  will  turn  out  a  sharp  ar- 
row reaching  him  to  pierce  his  very  heart. 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  63 

Full  justice  is  done  to  every  man :  it  con- 
sists in  the  totality  of  the  consequences  of 
both  his  good  and  evil  actions.  The  good 
man  who  was  misjudged  here  must  suffer 
from  that  circumstance  for  sometime,  here- 
after, as  from  an  outward  evil;  and  his 
false  glory  will  follow  the  unjust  man  as 
an  outward  good;  therefore,  it  will  be  well 
for  you  to  keep  your  good  name  unsullied 
and  not  to  hide  your  light  under  a  bushel. 
But  among  the  spirits  hereafter  there  will 
be  no  misjudging;  what  was  weighed  amiss 
here  will  be  set  right  above,  and  will  be 
overweighed  by  an  addition  to  the  other 
side  of  the  balance.  Divine  justice  shall 
finally  overcome  all  injustice  of  the  earth. 

Whatever  wakens  the  memory  of  the 
dead  is  a  means  of  calling  them  to  our 
side.  At  every  festival  arranged  to  com- 
memorate them,  they  rise;  round  every 
statue  which  we  erect  in  their  honor,  they 
float;  to  every  song  celebrating  their  noble 
acts,  they  listen.  Here  is  a  vital  germ  for 
a  new  phase  of  art!  Art  has  grown  so 
old,  so  tired  of  repeating  old  spectacles 


64  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

before  the  old  lookers-on  again  and  again; 
here  is  another  tier  of  boxes  opening,  as 
it  were,  above  the  pit  filled  with  the  old 
spectators ;  now  we  know  of  a  company  of 
a  higher  class  looking  down  from  above, 
and  the  noblest  object  of  art  will  be,  hence- 
forth, to  please  those  above,  no  longer 
those  below;  but  the  people  below  ought 
to  be  pleased  with  that  which  is  approved 
of  above. 

The  scoffers  go  on  scoffing  and  the 
churches  continue  quarrelling  —  scoffing 
and  quarrelling  about  a  mystery  which  the 
scoffers  say  is  repugnant  to  reason,  and 
which  the  churches  declare  is  above  reason ; 
for  a  greater  secret  has  remained  con- 
cealed from  both  parties,  the  opening  of 
which  removes  at  last,  in  a  very  simple 
and  easy  manner,  the  difficulty  which  has 
defied  the  reason  of  scoffers  and  disturbed 
the  harmony  of  the  churches;  it  is  simply 
the  greatest  illustration  of  a  universal  law, 
wherein  they  would  see  an  exception  to 
and  above  all  law.  It  is  not  in  a  mere 
body  of  flour  and  water  that  Christ  is  re- 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  65 

ceived  by  the  faithful  partaker  of  His  holy 
Supper.  If  you  receive  it  in  the  thought 
of  Him,  He  is  with  His  thoughts  not  only 
near  you,  but  within  you ;  the  more  earnest- 
ly you  think  of  Him  the  more  closely  He 
will  unite  Himself  with  you.  But  if  you 
do  not  think  of  Him  at  all,  you  eat  and 
drink  nothing  but  common  bread  and  com- 
mon wine. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  longing  of  every  man  to  be,  after 
his  death,  once  more  united  with 
those  he  loved  most  dearly  in  this 
life,  shall  be  fulfilled  in  a  more  perfect 
degree  than  you  ever  thought  of  or  hoped 
for. 

Those  who  were  united  in  their  life  by 
a  common  spiritual  element  shall,  in  the 
hereafter,  not  only  meet,  but  grow  to- 
gether, through  that  very  element  which 
shall  become  a  mutual  organ  of  their  spir- 
its, of  which  they  both  partake  with  equal 
consciousness.  For  even  now  the  dead  and 
the  living,  as  well  as  the  living  among  each 
other,  are  grown  into  one  by  numberless 
elements  of  that  kind,  elements  which  they 
have  in  common ;  but  not  till  death  has  un- 
done the  bonds  in  which  this  frame  of  ours 
holds  every  soul  of  the  living,  will  the 
union  of  their  consciousness  be  enhanced 
into  a  consciousness  of  their  union.  In  the 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  67 

moment  of  death  every  one  will  realize  the 
fact  that  what  his  mind  received  from 
those  who  died  before  him,  never  ceased 
to  belong  to  their  minds  as  well,  and  thus 
he  will  enter  the  third  world  not  like  a 
strange  visitor,  but  like  a  long  expected 
member  of  the  family,  who  is  welcomed 
home  by  all  those  with  whom  he  was  here 
united  in  the  community  of  faith,  of  knowl- 
edge, or  of  love. 

We  shall  also  enter  into  close  fellow- 
ship with  the  great  spirits  of  those  who 
lived,  in  their  second  stage  of  life,  long 
before  us,  but  whose  great  example  and 
wisdom  served  to  form  our  own  minds. 
Thus  he  who  lived  here  entirely  in  Christ 
will  be  entirely  in  Christ  hereafter;  nor  is 
his  individuality  to  be  extinguished  within 
a  higher  individuality;  nay,  he  will  be  es- 
tablished, and  receive  new  strength,  and 
at  the  same  time  be  able  to  strengthen 
others.  For  such  spirits  as  are  grown 
into  one  by  their  common  elements  must 
profit  by  each  other's  strength,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  they  influence  each  other 


68  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

through  their  different  elements.  Some 
spirits  will  strengthen  each  other  in  many 
parts  of  their  character,  while  others  have 
only  few  points  of  coincidence  and  of  mu- 
tual interest;  some  of  these  alliances 
brought  about  by  the  kindred  elements  in 
different  spirits  may  be  dissolved  again, 
but  those  whose  tendency  is  towards  truth, 
virtue,  and  beauty  will  continue. 

All  things  which  have  no  elements  of 
eternal  harmony  in  them,  though  continu- 
ing beyond  this  life,  must  one  day  vanish 
away,  thereby  separating  those  spirits  who 
for  some  time  were  united  in  an  unworthy 
alliance  working  for  no  good. 

Though  the  different  elements  of  human 
spirits  contain,  for  the  greater  part,  some 
germ  of  the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the 
good,  that  germ  is,  in  this  life,  covered  up 
and  encumbered  with  much  that  is  trifling, 
corrupted,  false,  and  wrong.  The  spirits 
united  by  such  elements  may,  in  after-life, 
either  remain  united  or  not:  for  they  may 
either  hold  what  is  right  and  good,  leaving 
that  which  is  wrong  and  wicked  to  the  evil 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  69 

spirits  whose  company  they  shun;  or  some 
of  them  may  keep  the  good,  others  the  bad, 
elements. 

On  the  other  hand,  spirits  united  by  their 
mutual  ownership  of  some  element  or  idea 
of  the  true,  the  beautiful,  or  the  good,  in  its 
eternal  purity,  will  remain  united  by  them 
for  ever,  sharing  for  ever  the  same  spirit- 
ual property. 

In  the  same  measure,  therefore,  as  the 
higher  spirits  comprehend  the  eternal 
ideas,  they  will  grow  together  in  larger 
spiritual  organisms;  and  as  the  roots  of  all 
individual  ideas  are  in  general  ideas,  and 
theirs  again  in  more  general  and  universal 
ideas,  so  at  last  will  all  the  spirits  be 
united — in  wonderful  organization — with 
the  greatest  of  spirits,  with  God. 

Thus  the  spiritual  world,  in  its  perfec- 
tion, is  not  a  mere  gathering  together  of 
spirits,  but  it  may  be  likened  to  a  living 
tree  of  spirits,  with  its  roots  in  the  earth 
and  its  crown  reaching  throughout  the 
heavens. 

Only  the  greatest  and  noblest  spirits,  as 


70  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

Christ  and  His  Saints,  are  able  to  reach, 
immediately,  with  the  best  part  of  their  be- 
ing, the  inward  height  and  greatness  of 
God;  the  smaller  and  minor  spirits  take 
root  in  them  as  twigs  in  branches,  and 
branches  in  trees,  connected,  through  their 
mediation,  with  the  highest  essence  of  the 
most  High. 

Dead  geniuses  and  saints  are,  therefore, 
the  true  mediators  between  God  and  men, 
partaking,  on  one  side,  of  the  ideas  of  God 
and  communicating  them  to  men,  and  feel- 
ing, on  the  other  side,  the  joys  and  suffer- 
ings of  mankind  and  communicating  them 
to  God. 

In  the  very  beginnings  of  religious  life 
the  worship  of  the  dead  was  closely  con- 
nected with  the  worship  of  deified  nature; 
the  savage  races  have  retained  the  greater, 
the  civilized  races  the  higher  part  of  those 
views,  and  there  is  no  people  or  community 
that  do  not  hold  more  or  less  of  them  as  a 
chief  article  of  faith.  Therefore,  every 
town  ought  to  have  a  shrine  for  their  own 
great  dead,  which  might  be  built  close  by, 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH,  71 

or  right  within  the  temple  of  God,  whereas 
Christ  alone  ought  to  be  always  worshiped 
in  the  same  place  with  God  himself. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

"Now  we  see  through  a  glass,  darkly;  but  then 
face  to  face;  now  I  know  in  part;  but  then  shall  I 
know  even  as  also  I  am  known."  1  Cor.  xiii.  12. 

MAN  leads  both  an  outward  and  an 
inward  life  in  this  world;  the  one 
visible  and  perceptible  for  every 
one  in  his  looks,  words,  works,  and  deeds ; 
the  other  perceptible  only  for  himself  in 
his  thoughts  and  emotions.  The  continua- 
tion of  the  visible  life  into  the  world 
around  may  be  easily  traced,  the  continu- 
ation of  the  invisible  life  remains  invisible, 
but  is  by  no  means  wanting.  For  as  man's 
inward  life  forms  the  centre  of  his  present 
existence,  its  continuation  will  form  the 
centre  of  his  future  existence. 

Indeed,  the  effects  which  a  person  pro- 
duces in  a  form  visible  and  perceptible  to 
the  living,  are  not  the  only  emanation  from 
him.  However  minute  and  gentle  a  vibra- 
tion connected  with  some  conscious  move- 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  73 

ment  within  our  mind  may  be — and  all  our 
mental  acts  are  connected  with,  and  ac- 
companied by,  such  vibrations  of  our  brain 
— it  cannot  vanish  without  producing  con- 
tinued processes  of  a  similar  nature,  within 
ourselves,  and,  finally,  around  ourselves, 
though  we  are  not  able  to  trace  them  into 
the  outer  world.  As  little  as  the  lute  can 
keep  its  music  to  itself,  so  little  can  our 
brain.  The  music  of  sounds  or  of  thoughts 
originates  in  the  lute  or  in  the  brain,  but 
does  not  stay  there:  it  spreads  beyond 
them. 

What  a  wonderfully  complicated  play  of 
vibrations  of  a  higher  order,  originating 
in  our  brain,  may  be  going  on  along  with 
the  coarser  and  lower  play  that  strikes  our 
eyes  and  ears,  something  like  the  most  deli- 
cate ripple  on  the  big  waves  of  a  lake,  or 
the  finely  traced  ornaments  on  the  surface 
of  a  carpet,  which  receives  its  whole  value 
and  higher  meaning  from  them.  The  man 
of  science  knows  and  studies  the  play  of 
waves  of  a  lower  order  only,  little  caring 
for  those  of  a  higher  order.  He  does  not 


74  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

perceive  them,  but  knowing  the  principle, 
he  ought  not  to  neglect  the  inferences  that 
may  be  derived  from  it.1 

Therefore,  the  effects  produced  by  hu- 
man spirits  are  not  limited  to  their  con- 
tinued influence  upon  us  by  means  of  their 
perceptible  outer  life  in  the  present  stage: 
along  with  this  outer  part  there  is  in  our 
nature  another  imperceptible  inner  part, 
even  the  essential  part  of  the  human  being. 
Suppose  a  man  to  have  lived  and  died  in 
some  desert  island  without  any  direct  in- 
fluence on  other  people's  lives:  he  must 
continue  in  his  individuality,  in  expectance 
of  future  development,  having  been  unable 

1  Whether  we  attribute  the  action  of  the  nerves  to 
chemical  or  electrical  processes,  we  either  ascribe  them 
to  the  vibrations  of  ultimate  particles,  or  at  least 
assume  them  to  be  evoked  by  or  connected  with  them, 
though  the  imponderable  substance  may  herein  be  of 
greater  moment  than  the  ponderable.  Now  vibrations 
can  only  seem  to  die  out,  in  so  far  as  they  spread  in- 
definitely in  all  directions;  or,  if  dying  out  for  a  time, 
transformed  into  energy  or  tension,  they  are  able  to 
begin  afresh,  in  some  form  or  other,  in  accordance  with 
the  law  of  the  conservation  of  energy. 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  75 

to  develop  himself  in  this  life  through 
intercourse  with  his  fellow-men.  In  the 
same  way  a  child,  which  has  been  alive 
only  for  a  moment,  can  never  die  again. 
The  shortest  moment  of  conscious  life 
produces  a  circle  of  influence  around 
it,  just  as  the  briefest  tone  that  seems  gone 
in  a  second,  produces  a  similar  circle,  which 
carries  the  tone  into  endless  space,  far 
beyond  the  persons  standing  by  to  listen; 
for  no  action,  or  effect,  is  utterly  destroyed, 
it  goes  on  producing  new  effects  of  its 
kind  for  ever.  Thus  the  mind  of  a  child 
will  develop  itself  from  that  one  conscious 
moment,  as  well  as  the  mind  of  that  iso- 
lated man,  but  in  a  different  way  from  what 
it  would  have  done  when  beginning  from 
a  more  developed  state. 

It  is  only  in  death  that  a  man  becomes 
fully  conscious  of  all  the  influence  he  exer- 
cised on  other  men's  minds;  in  the  same 
way  will  he  acquire  only  in  death  full  pos- 
session and  use  of  what  he  has  fashioned 
within  himself.  What  mental  treasures  he 
gathered  in  all  his  life,  what  fills  his  mem- 


76  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

ory,  what  pervades  his  feelings,  what  his 
mind  and  fancy  created,  will  remain  his 
property  for  ever.  The  connection  and 
interdependence  of  all  these  mental  stores 
remains  dark  to  us  in  this  life.  Thoughts 
will  occasionally  pass  through  this  treas- 
ure-house, lighting  up  with  their  rays  the 
little  corner  that  lies  on  their  way,  and 
leaving  the  rest  in  obscurity.  Our  mind 
never  realizes  its  inward  fulness  all  at  once. 
Detached  ideas  only,  happening  to  find  a 
new  idea  to  associate  with,  will  emerge 
from  the  dark  for  a  moment,  to  sink  back 
into  the  dark  the  next  moment.  Thus  man 
is  a  stranger  to  his  own  mind,  in  which 
he  gropes  in  the  dark,  trusting  to  his  syl- 
logisms to  guide  him,  and  often  forgetting 
the  best  of  his  treasures,  which  happen  to 
lie  out  of  his  way  concealed  by  the  dark- 
ness which  covers  the  regions  of  the  human 
spirit.  In  the  moment  of  death,  however, 
when  eternal  night  sinks  down  on  his  bodily 
eyes,  a  new  day  will  break  upon  his  spirit; 
the  centre  of  the  inner  man  will  kindle  into 
a  sun,  which  sheds  its  radiance  over  all  his 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  77 

spiritual  stores,  and  at  the  same  time  pene- 
trates into  and  looks  through  them  as  an 
inward  eye  of  unearthly  keenness.  All 
that  he  had  forgotten  here,  he  will  find 
again  there;  he  only  forgot  it  because  it 
went  to  the  hereafter  before  him,  where  he 
finds  it  all  gathered  up  for  him,  in  a  new 
and  universal  light,  which  saves  him  the 
trouble  of  collecting  what  he  wants  to  as- 
sociate, and  dividing  what  he  wants  to 
separate.  At  a  glance  he  will  be  able  to 
survey  all  that  is  in  him,  his  various  ideas 
in  their  relations  of  agreement  and  con- 
tradiction, of  connection  and  separation — 
not  confined  to  one  particular  direction  of 
his  thoughts,  but  looking  into  every  direc- 
tion at  once.  There  are  instances  of  per- 
sons approaching  such  a  state  of  inward 
illumination,  even  in  this  life,  in  cases  of 
approaching  death,  as  by  drowning,  or  in 
somnambulism,  or  narcosis,  and  such  like. 
As  high  as  the  flight  and  sight  of  a  bird 
mount  above  the  lowly  path  of  the  blind 
crawling  caterpillar,  that  knows  of  nothing 
but  what  it  touches  in  its  slow  movements, 


78  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

so  far  will  that  higher  state  of  knowledge 
surpass  our  present  state.  So  that  in  death 
not  only  our  body,  but  our  senses,  our  in- 
tellect, the  whole  constitution  of  our  mind, 
must  be  cast  off,  as  forms  too  narrow  for 
our  life  hereafter,  as  useless  members  for 
a  new  order  of  things,  where  everything 
that  we  could  approach  and  investigate 
but  slowly  and  imperfectly  with  such  earth- 
ly organs,  will  be  immediately  within  our- 
selves, for  us  to  look  through,  to  know, 
and  to  enjoy.  Every  man's  own  self,  how- 
ever, in  the  middle  of  that  dissolution  of 
temporary  forms,  will  remain  unimpaired 
in  its  whole  extent  and  development,  and 
there  will  be  for  him  a  new  and  higher  life 
instead  of  the  inferior  kind  of  activity 
which  has  been  extinguished.  The  turmoil 
of  thoughts  is  hushed;  they  need  no  longer 
come  and  go,  and  move  about,  to  become 
conscious  of  their  relation  to  each  other. 
The  present  intercourse  of  thoughts  will 
give  way  to  a  higher  intercourse,  between 
spirits  and  spirits.  And  as  the  intercourse 
of  human  thoughts  takes  place  in  human 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  79 

spirit,  so  the  intercourse  and  communion 
of  spirits  will  take  place  in  that  higher 
spirit  whose  all-connecting  centre  we  call 
God.  For  them  no  language  is  required 
to  understand,  no  eye  to  see  and  recognize 
each  other.  Just  as  one  thought  of  ours 
understands  and  influences  another  with- 
out the  mediation  of  mouth,  ear,  or  hand; 
as  thoughts  meet  and  part  without  an  out- 
ward link  or  separation;  so  secret,  close, 
and  immediate  will  the  communion  of 
spirits  be.  There  is  nothing  those  spirits 
will  be  able  to  conceal  from  each  other; 
every  sinful  thought  that  lurked  here  in 
some  dark  corner  of  the  mind,  everything 
a  man  would  like  to  cover  up  from  his 
fellow-men  with  a  thousand  hands,  will  lie 
clear  and  open  to  every  spirit.  Only  those 
spirits,  therefore,  that  were  all  pure  and 
true  in  this  life,  will  be  able  to  meet  other 
spirits  unashamed  hereafter;  and  those 
that  were  set  aside  and  misjudged  here  will 
be  understood  and  appreciated  hereafter. 
Again,  every  spirit  will  with  a  self- 
penetrating  eye  perceive  all  his  own  de- 


80  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

fects,  all  he  left  unfinished,  imperfect,  and 
discordant  within  himself  here,  and  per- 
ceiving these  defects  will  feel  them  with 
the  same  keenness  of  sensation  with  which 
we  feel  our  bodily  defects.  And  as  in  the 
human  mind  one  thought  may  help  to  free 
the  other  from  all  that  is  deficient  in  it, 
and  as  they  associate  into  higher  thoughts, 
supplying  in  this  wise  what  is  imperfect  in 
each  of  them:  just  so  the  communion  of 
spirits  will  serve  them  as  a  means  of  prog- 
ress towards  perfection. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MAN'S  relations  with  nature,  in  this 
life,  are  of  a  material  as  well  as 
of  a  spiritual  kind.  Heat,  air, 
water,  earth  enter  into  and  issue  from  him 
in  every  direction,  forming  and  changing 
his  body.  Around  him,  they  move  side  by 
side,  within  him  they  meet  and  combine, 
and  in  their  combination  make  up  a  frame, 
which  shuts  off  his  bodily  sensations  2nd 
whatever  there  is  still  deeper  than  these 
within  him,  from  immediate  contact  y/ith 
the  outer  world.  Thus  he  looks  and  feels 
into  the  outer  world  through  the  windows 
of  his  senses,  and  draws  fragmentary 
knowledge  out  of  it  as  in  little  buckets. 

After  his  death,  however,  when  his  bod- 
ily frame  sinks  into  decay,  the  spirit,  fet- 
tered and  encumbered  no  longer,  will  roam 
throughout  nature  in  unbound  liberty. 
Then  he  will  feel  the  waves  of  light  and 
sound  not  only  as  they  strike  his  eyes  arid 


82  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

ears,  but  as  they  glide  along  in  the  oceans 
of  air  and  of  ether;  he  will  feel  not  only 
the  breathing  of  the  wind  and  the  heaving 
of  the  sea  against  his  body  bathing  in  them, 
but  float  along  through  air  and  sea  him- 
self; he  will  no  longer  walk  among  verdant 
trees  and  fragrant  meadows,  but  conscious- 
ly pervade  the  fields,  and  forests,  and  men 
as  they  walk  about  them. 

Thus,  what  he  loses  in  passing  to  a  high- 
er stage  of  life  are  nothing  but  organs  the 
imperfect  aid  of  which  he  can  gladly  dis- 
pense with  in  a  state  of  existence  where  he 
shall  feel,  and  perfectly  and  actually  take 
in,  everything  that,  on  a  lower  stage,  lay 
outside  his  own  self  and  could  not  be  ap- 
proached but  by  such  slow  mediation.  Why 
should  we  take  our  eyes  and  ears  with  us 
into  the  life  to  come,  to  draw  in  light  and 
sound  from  living  nature's  well,  when  the 
waves  of  that  future  life  shall  move  in 
harmony  and  union  with  the  very  waves  of 
light  and  sound?  Nay,  more :  The  human 
eye,  though  kindred  to  the  sun,  is  but  a  tiny 
thing,  perceiving  of  the  glory  of  the  skies 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  83 

but  little  sparkling  dots.  Man's  longing 
to  know  more  of  the  heavens  is  not  grati- 
fied in  this  life.  Though  he  invent  tele- 
scopes to  enlarge  the  power  and  capacity 
of  his  eyes,  it  is  in  vain — the  stars  are  only 
so  many  dots  for  him.  So  he  hopes  to  at- 
tain in  the  life  to  come  what  his  present 
life  cannot  afford  him,  he  trusts  to  have 
his  longings  satisfied  when  he  shall  go  to 
heaven,  and  to  see,  henceforth,  distinctly 
everything  that  was  hidden  from  his  earth- 
ly sight  And  he  is  right  in  hoping  so, 
though  he  shall  not  receive  wings  to  go  to 
heaven  and  fly  from  star  to  star  with,  or 
from  the  heavens  visible  above  us  to  higher 
heavens  yet  unseen;  there  are  no  such 
wings  in  the  nature  of  things.  Nor  is  he 
to  see  the  heavens  in  being  carried  from 
one  star  to  another  in  a  succession  of  new 
births;  there  is  no  stork  to  carry  babies 
from  star  to  star.  Nor  will  his  eye  receive 
more  visual  power  to  penetrate  into  the 
farthest  distances  of  heaven,  by  being 
turned  into  the  largest  kind  of  telescope; 
the  principle  of  our  earthly  vision  would 


84  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

prove  insufficient  there.  When,  as  a  con- 
scious part  of  the  great  celestial  body  that 
carries  and  holds  him — the  Earth — he  con- 
sciously partakes  in  the  intercourse, 
through  light,  between  this  and  other  heav- 
enly beings:  then  shall  he  see  his  longing 
gratified. 

What,  a  new  kind  of  sight?  Well,  it 
would  not  be  fit  for  men  below,  just  as  our 
present  sight  would  not  suffice  for  the  heav- 
ens above.1  Through  heavenly  space  the 
Earth  floats  along,  an  enormous  eye,  im- 
mersed in  an  ocean  of  the  light  which  pro- 
ceeds from  numberless  stars,  and  wheeling 
round  and  round  to  receive,  on  all  sides, 
the  impact  of  its  waves,  which  cross  and 
cross  again,  a  million  of  times,  without 
ever  disturbing  each  other.  It  is  with  that 
eye  man  shall  one  day  learn  to  see,  meeting 
with  the  spreading  waves  of  his  future 
life  the  outward  waves  of  the  surrounding 
ether,  and  undisturbed  by  the  encountering 

1  Lest  this  assumption,  apparently  involving  serious 
difficulties,  might  be  considered  thoughtless,  I  shall 
more  fully  explain  the  meaning  of  it  in  an  appendix. 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  85 

waves,   penetrating,   with  its  most  subtle 
vibrations,  into  the  depths  of  heaven. 

Learn  to  see,  indeed!  A  great  many 
things  man  will  have  to  learn  after  his 
death.  For  you  must  not  expect  that  you 
shall  take  in,  on  your  very  entrance  into  it, 
the  whole  splendor  of  heaven,  which  is  in 
store  for  the  life  to  come.  Even  here  a 
child  must  learn  to  see  and  hear;  what  it 
sees  and  hears  in  the  beginning  are  sights 
and  sounds  meaningless  for  it,  dazzling, 
stunning,  confusing.  The  same  will  be  the 
case,  in  the  life  to  come,  with  what  is  of- 
fered to  the  new  senses  of  the  new  child. 
Only  what  man  takes  away  with  him  of  this 
life,  the  remembrance  of  all  he  has  done, 
thought,  and  been  here,  he  will  see  clearly 
and  distinctly  within  him,  as  soon  as  he 
enters  that  new  life:  though  this  will  pri- 
marily leave  him  very  much  the  same  man 
he  has  been.  And  you  may  be  sure  that 
the  foolish,  the  idle,  the  wicked  shall  profit 
by  the  glory  of  the  hereafter  only  so  far  as 
they  are  made  to  see  the  discord  of  their 
lives,  and  are  compelled,  in  the  end,  to  give 


86  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

up  their  old,  evil  ways.  Even  for  his  pres- 
ent life  man  has  received  an  eye  to  see  all 
the  marvels  of  heaven  and  earth,  an  ear  to 
drink  in  the  sounds  of  music  and  of  human 
speech,  an  understanding  to  grasp  the 
meaning  of  all  these  things — yet,  what  is 
the  use  of  eye,  ear,  or  mind  to  the  foolish, 
the  idle,  the  wicked? 

The  best  and  highest  things  of  the  life 
to  come,  as  well  as  of  the  present  life,  are 
only  for  the  best  and  highest  men,  who 
alone  understand,  appreciate,  and  help  to 
produce  them.  Thus  only  the  higher  class 
of  spirits  will  be  enabled  to  understand, 
and  take  an  active  part  in,  the  conscious 
intercourse  of  the  celestial  being  that  car- 
ries them  with  other  beings  of  the  "com- 
pany of  heaven." 

Whether,  after  aeons  of  years,  this  earth 
of  ours,  revolving  round  the  sun  in  closer 
and  closer  orbits,  shall  return  to  the  womb 
whence  it  issued,  for  a  new,  solar  life  to 
begin  for  all  earthly  creatures — who 
knows  ?  And  would  it  behoove  us  to  know, 
at  present? 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  spirits  of  the  third  stage  will 
dwell  in  the  regions  of  this  Earth, 
whereof  mankind  itself  forms  a 
part,  as  in  a  common  body,  and  all  the 
processes  in  nature  will  be  to  them  the 
same  as  the  processes  in  our  bodies  are  to 
us  at  present.  Their  body  will  enclose  the 
bodies  of  the  second  stage  of  life  as  a  com- 
mon mother,  just  as  the  bodies  of  the  sec- 
ond stage  enclose  those  of  the  first.  But  a 
spirit  of  the  third  stage  has  for  his  own 
share  the  common  body  which  he  con- 
tributed to  form  and  develop  during  his 
earthly  life.  Whatever  in  this  world  has 
become,  through  the  existence  of  a  certain 
human  being,  different  from  what  it  would 
have  been  without  him,  helps  to  constitute 
his  new  existence,  grown  out  of  the  com- 
mon root  of  all  existence,  and  made  up, 
partly  of  solid  institutions  and  works,  part- 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 


ly  of  moving  and  spreading  effects,  similar- 
ly to  the  way  our  present  body  is  made  up 
of  solid  material,  and  of  changeable  ma- 
terial kept  together  by  the  solid. 

Now,  as  the  spheres  of  existence  where- 
in the  lives  of  higher  spirits  move  must 
necessarily  intersect,  the  question  arises 
how  is  it  possible  for  such  numberless 
spheres  to  cross  and  recross  each  other 
without  disturbing  and  confusing  each 
other.  But  you  may  as  well  ask  how  it  is 
possible  for  numberless  water  waves  to 
cross  in  the  same  lake,  for  numberless 
air  waves  to  cross  in  the  same  atmos- 
phere, for  numberless  waves  of  light 
to  cross  in  the  same  ether,  for  numberless 
waves  of  memory  to  cross  in  the  same 
brain,  for  numberless  spheres  of  human 
lives — the  germs  and  substructions  of  their 
after-lives — to  cross  in  this  world  without 
disturbing  and  confusing  each  other.  On 
the  contrary,  they  only  produce  a  move- 
ment and  life,  of  a  higher  order,  of  those 
waves,  those  memories,  those  lives  of  the 
second,  and  also  of  the  third  stage. 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  89 

But  what  is  there  that  keeps  those  cross- 
ing spheres  of  consciousness  asunder? 
Nothing  is  there  to  keep  them  asunder  in 
any  particular  points  of  coincidence,  for 
they  all  have  their  points  in  common, 
though  they  belong  to  each  of  them  in  a 
different  manner:  this  is  what  separates 
them  and  distinguishes  them  as  individuals. 
Or  would  you  ask  what  there  is  to  distin- 
guish or  separate  the  intersecting  wave 
circles?  You  are  able  to  distinguish  them 
outwardly,  though  they  are  all  alike;  and 
it  must  be  much  easier  for  spheres  of  con- 
sciousness to  distinguish  each  other  and 
themselves  inwardly. 

When  you  get  a  letter  from  India  or 
Australia  having  its  pages  crossed  with 
writing  in  different  directions,  how  do  you 
manage  to  distinguish  the  two  sets  of  lines? 
Simply  by  the  inner  connection  of  each  set. 
Now,  the  world  may  be  compared  to  such 
a  sheet  crossed  with  divers  sets  of  writing, 
in  ever  so  many  directions,  every  set  read- 
ing itself  as  it  stands  by  itself,  and  reading 
as  well  the  other  sets  by  which  it  is  crossed. 


90  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

But  that  letter  is  only  a  very  inadequate 
symbol  of  the  world. 

How,  then,  can  consciousness  remain 
one,  when  spread  over  such  an  extended 
space?  Is  there  not  the  law  about  "the 
Threshold  of  Consciousness"  P1  You  may 
as  well  ask  how  can  it  remain  one  in  the 
more  limited  space  of  your  body,  of  which 
that  more  extended  space  is  only  a  con- 
tinuation. Your  body,  your  brain,  are 
they  mere  points?  Or  is  there  one  partic- 
ular point  in  them,  the  seat  of  the  soul? 
There  is  no  such  point.  The  nature  of 
your  soul  at  present  is  to  maintain  the 

'This  empirical  law  of  the  reciprocity  of  body  and 
mind  states,  that  consciousness  is  extinguished  when- 
ever the  bodily  activity  on  which  it  depends,  sinks 
below  a  certain  degree  of  strength,  called  the  Thresh- 
old. The  more  extended  this  activity,  the  more  it  will 
be  weakened,  and  the  more  easily  it  will  sink  below 
the  threshold.  There  is  such  a  threshold  for  our  con- 
sciousness as  a  whole — the  limit  between  sleeping  and 
waking — and  a  particular  one  for  every  particular 
sphere  of  the  mind.  Hence,  in  the  waking  state,  the  one 
or  the  other  idea  will  rise  up  or  sink  in  our  mind,  ac- 
cording as  the  particular  activity  on  which  it  depends 
rises  above,  or  sinks  below,  its  respective  threshold. 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  91 

connection  between  all  the  parts  of  your 
small  body;  hereafter  it  will  be,  to  main- 
tain the  more  extensive  connection  of  all 
the  parts  of  your  larger  body.  The  spirit 
of  God  maintains  the  connection  of  the 
whole  Universe,  and  would  you  look  for 
God  in  a  point?  And  one  day  you  shall 
more  fully  partake  of  His  ubiquity. 

Or,  if  you  are  afraid  that  the  waves  of 
your  future  life  may  be  too  extended  to  rise 
to  the  threshold  which  they  reach  and  over- 
step in  this  life,  you  ought  to  consider  that, 
far  from  spreading  into  an  empty  world 
where  they  would  indeed  sink  into  an  abyss, 
they  spread  into  a  world,  which,  as  the 
eternal  foundation  of  the  spirit  of  God, 
will  be  a  foundation  of  yours  as  well :  for 
it  is  only  as  supported  by  and  enclosed  in 
the  divine  life  that  any  creature  can  live. 

The  little  wren,  carried  on  the  eagle's 
back,  can  easily  soar  above  the  mountain 
tops,  which  she  could  never  do  for  herself; 
she  can  even  fly  a  little  higher,  above  the 
eagle's  back  where  she  rested.  But  both 
eagle  and  wren  remain  in  the  care  of  God. 


92  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

Another  question  arises — how,  after 
death,  we  shall  be  able  to  exist  without  our 
brain,  that  wonderful  structure  which  at 
present  supports  all  our  mental  activity,  de- 
veloping itself  in  the  same  measure  as  that 
activity  grows  and  develops  itself — was 
it  given  to  us  for  no  purpose  ?  It  would  be 
the  same  question,  how  the  plant  can  exist 
without  the  seed  out  of  which  it  burst  forth 
into  life,  and  grows  into  light:  the  seed, 
another  such  wonderful  structure,  develop- 
ing itself  more  and  more  through  its  own 
vitality;  was  that  seed  made  for  no  pur- 
pose? 

Now  you  ask,  is  there,  in  all  the  world 
around  us,  another  structure  as  wonderful 
as  the  human  brain,  that  might  take  its 
place  in  after-life,  or  is  there  any  structure 
even  superior  to  it:  for  the  life  to  come 
will  no  doubt  be  superior  to  the  present 
life.  But  is  not  your  body,  as  a  whole,  a 
larger  and  grander  structure  than  your  eye, 
your  ear,  your  brain,  or  any  of  its  parts? 
And  again  the  world  of  which  mankind, 
with  their  commonwealths,  their  sciences, 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  93 

arts,  and  commerce  form  only  a  part,  is 
in  the  same  degree,  nay,  in  an  unspeakably 
higher  degree,  superior  to  your  little  brain, 
which  is  only  a  part  or  particle  of  that  part. 
To  gain  a  higher  view  of  the  subject,  you 
must  not  take  the  earth  for  a  mere  ball  of 
land  and  water  and  air;  the  earth  is  indeed 
a  larger  and  higher  individual  creature 
than  yourself,  a  heavenly  being,  with  a 
more  wonderful  living  and  moving  on  its 
surface  than  you  carry  about  in  your  own 
little  brain,  contributing  thereby  your  own 
small  share  to  the  earth  life.  It  is  vain 
for  you  to  dream  of  a  life  to  come,  if  you 
fail  to  recognize  the  life  around  you. 

What  does  the  anatomist  see  in  a  man's 
brain?  It  is  to  him  a  labyrinth  of  whitish 
filaments,  the  meaning  of  which  he  cannot 
read.  And  what  does  the  brain  see  in  it- 
self? A  world  of  light,  and  sound,  and 
thoughts,  associations,  fancies,  emotions  of 
love  and  hatred.  This  will  help  you  to 
realize  the  difference  between  that  which 
you  see  of  the  world,  looking  at  it  from  the 
outside,  and  that  which  the  world  sees 


94  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

within  itself.  Then  you  will  no  longer 
expect  that  in  the  world  as  a  whole  the 
inside  and  the  outside  ought  to  resemble 
one  another  more  than  in  the  case  of  your- 
self, as  a  part  of  the  world.  And  only 
because  you  are  a  part  of  the  world  you  are 
enabled  to  see  within  yourself  a  part  of 
that  which  the  world  sees  in  itself. 

Finally,  you  may  ask  what  it  is  that  in 
after-life,  and  not  till  then,  wakens  our 
larger  body,  so  to  speak.  For  that  body 
exists  at  present,  growing  and  spreading 
into  the  outer  world  as  a  continuation  of 
our  present  narrow  body.  Well,  it  wakens 
from  the  very  fact  that  this  narrow  body 
falls  asleep,  or  rather  decays.  It  is  only 
an  instance  of  the  universal  rule,  which 
prevails  throughout  this  present  life, 
whence  we  conclude  that  it  will  continue 
hereafter.  In  your  sceptic  way,  you  in- 
sist on  drawing  all  your  conclusions  from 
this  life;  so  you  ought  to  draw  this  one 
also. 

Conscious  energy  is  in  fact  never  pro- 
duced afresh,  nor  can  it  be  absolutely  de- 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  95 

stroyed.  Similar  to  the  body  with  which 
it  is  connected,  it  may  change  its  place, 
form,  and  activity,  in  time  and  space. 
When  it  sinks  to-day  in  one  place,  it  will 
rise  in  another  place  to-morrow.  That 
your  eye  may  be  awake,  may  see  conscious- 
ly, your  ear  must  go  to  sleep  for  a  while ; 
that  your  mental  activity  may  be  roused, 
your  senses  must  sleep  for  a  while;  a  feel- 
ing of  pain  in  some  minute  part  of  your 
body  may  for  a  time  extinguish  all  your 
consciousness.  When  directed  to  a  large 
range  of  subjects  at  once,  the  light  of  at- 
tention will  necessarily  shine  but  feebly  on 
the  details;  when  it  is  concentrated  on  one 
point,  all  the  rest  will  recede  into  darkness; 
to  reflect  on  something  is  to  abstract  from 
other  things.  You  are  awake  to-day  be- 
cause you  slept  yesterday,  and  the  more 
active  you  have  been  in  waking,  the  sound- 
er will  be  your  sleep. 

Now,  in  this  life,  our  sleep,  in  a  certain 
sense,  is  only  half-sleep,  allowing  the  old 
man  to  waken  again,  because  the  old  man 
is  still  here ;  in  death  our  sleep  will  be  full 


96  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

sleep,  out  of  which  shall  waken  a  new  man, 
for  the  old  man  is  not:  but  the  old  rule 
holds  good  again,  which  demands  an  equiv- 
alent of  your  former  consciousness ;  and  as 
there  is  a  new  body  instead  of  the  old  one, 
being  a  continuation  of  the  same,  so  there 
will  be  a  new  consciousness,  as  an  equiva- 
lent and  continuation  of  the  old  one. 

A  continuation,  I  say;  for  whatever  pre- 
serves, in  the  old  man,  the  consciousness 
that  dwelled  in  the  body  of  the  child, 
though  there  is  not  an  atom  of  it  left  in  his 
body,  will  preserve,  in  his  future  life,  the 
same  consciousness  that  dwelled  in  the 
body  of  the  old  man,  of  which  not  an  atom 
will  be  left  in  the  new  body.  For  in  either 
case  the  new  body  preserves  the  effects  of 
the  former  body,  the  organ  of  his  former 
consciousness,  and  is  itself  the  outgrowth 
of  it.  Thus  there  is  one  principle  for  the 
continuation  of  our  present  life,  from  this 
day  to  the  morrow,  and  for  the  continua- 
tion of  the  present  life  into  the  life  to 
come.  And  could  there  be  any  principle 
but  an  eternal  one  for  the  eternal  con- 
tinuation of  human  life? 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  97 

As  little  need  you  ask,  how  it  is  that  the 
effects  produced  by  you  in  this  world,  which 
have  spread  around  and  beyond  yourself, 
belong  to  you  more  properly  and  more 
closely  than  any  other  effects  lying  beyond 
your  sphere.  The  reason  for  this  is  in 
their  origin  from  you.  Every  cause 
retains  its  effects  as  an  eternal  prop- 
erty. And,  after  all,  your  acts  never  went 
beyond  you;  even  in  this  life,  they  formed 
an  unconscious  continuation  of  yourself, 
only  waiting  to  be  wakened  to  new  con- 
sciousness. 

As  little  as  a  man,  when  once  alive,  can 
ever  die  again,  as  little  could  he  have  wak- 
ened into  life  had  he  not  been  alive  before; 
only  he  was  not  alive  individually.  The 
consciousness  which  wakens  in  a  child  at 
its  birth  is  only  a  part  of  the  eternal  and 
universal  consciousness  concentrated  in  this 
new  soul.  To  follow  this  living  power  of 
consciousness  through  all  its  ways  and 
changes  involves  no  greater  difficulty  than 
following  the  living  power  of  the  body. 

Perhaps  you  are  afraid  that  human  con- 


98  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

sciousness,  being  born  of  the  universal  con- 
sciousness, may  be  again  absorbed  into  the 
same.  Behold  the  tree !  What  a  time  it 
took  for  the  stem  to  grow  branches;  but 
once  here  they  cannot  be  swallowed  up  into 
the  stem  again,  else  the  tree  could  not  grow 
and  develop  itself :  but  the  tree  of  universal 
life  must  grow  and  develop  itself  as  well. 

After  all,  to  draw  any  conclusion  from 
this  life  about  the  hereafter,  we  must  not 
take  our  stand  on  unknown  causes  or  self- 
made  premises;  but  on  known  facts,  from 
whence  to  proceed  to  the  greater  and  high- 
er facts  of  after-life,  and  thus  to  strengthen 
and  support  our  belief  from  below,  in  addi- 
tion to  higher  arguments,  and  vitally  to 
connect  this  belief  with  practical  life.  If 
we  did  not  need  this  faith,  we  should  re- 
quire no  support  for  it;  but  what  would  be 
its  use  without  such  support? 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  human  soul  is  spread  throughout 
the  body;  when  the  soul  departs  the 
body  decays.  But  the  conscious- 
ness of  the  soul  is  in  different  places  at 
different  times.1  You  may  watch  it  wan- 
dering about  in  our  narrow  body,  now 
corresponding  with  the  eye,  now  with  the 
ear,  with  the  outer  and  inner  senses.  In 
death,  it  will  wander  beyond  our  body,  like 
a  man  who,  having  had  his  little  house  de- 
stroyed wherein  he  moved  about  for  years, 

xOr,  to  express  it  more  exactly,  consciousness  is 
present  and  awake  when  and  where  the  activity  of  the 
body  underlying  the  activity  of  the  mind — the  psycho- 
physical  activity — exceeds  that  degree  of  strength 
which  we  call  the  threshold.  According  to  this  view, 
consciousness  can  be  localized  in  time  and  space.  The 
summits  of  the  waves  of  our  psycho-physical  activity 
move  and  change  about  from  place  to  place,  though 
confined,  in  this  life,  to  our  body,  even  to  a  limited  part 
of  our  body,  and  in  sleep  they  sink  below  the  threshold 
to  rise  again  in  waking. 


100  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

leaves  it  for  ever  to  wander  to  distant 
countries.  Death  separates  our  two  lives 
only  so  far  as  it  takes  us  from  the  narrow 
scene  of  our  wanderings  to  a  wider  one. 
Now,  in  this  life  consciousness  cannot  be 
in  every  place  at  once;  the  same  in  after- 
life. But  the  range  of  its  wanderings  will 
be  incomparably  wider,  with  freer  roads, 
with  higher  points  of  view,  embracing  all 
the  lower  ones  of  the  present  life. 

Even  in  this  life  it  may  happen,  though 
very  rarely,  that  the  light  of  consciousness 
wanders  from  the  narrow  body  into  the 
larger  body,  and  returning  home  gives  in- 
formation about  things  which  are  taking 
place  far  away  in  space,  or  things  which, 
springing  from  present  circumstances,  will 
take  place  in  some  future  time:  for  the 
length  of  the  future  rests  on  the  breadth 
of  the  present.  Sometimes  a  little  rift  will 
open,  and  quickly  close  again,  in  the  other- 
wise closed  door  between  this  world  and 
the  next,  the  door  which  only  death  shall 
open  for  ever  and  aye.  Nor  is  it  well  for 
us  to  peep  through  those  rifts  before  the 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  101 

time.  But  such  exceptions  to  the  rule  of 
our  present  life  are  still  in  harmony  with 
the  greater  rule  which  embraces  both  this 
life  and  the  life  hereafter. 

Sometimes  the  narrower  body  will  fall 
asleep  to  a  certain  extent,  in  an  uncommon 
way,  wakening  in  a  no  less  uncommon  way, 
in  another  direction,  beyond  its  usual 
limits,  though  not  so  completely  as  to 
awaken  no  more.  Or,  some  part  of  our 
larger  body  is  impressed  with  such  uncom- 
mon intensity  as  to  draw  our  consciousness, 
for  a  while,  away  from  our  narrower  body, 
to  rise  above  the  threshold  in  an  unusual 
place.  Hence  the  wonders  of  clairvoy- 
ance, of  presentiments,  and  dreams — mere 
fables,  if  our  future  body  and  our  future 
life  are  fables,  otherwise  signs  of  the  one 
and  predictions  of  the  other :  and  if  a  thing 
has  its  signs,  it  must  exist;  if  it  has  predic- 
tions, it  will  come. 

However,  all  those  things  are  no  signs 
of  a  healthy  life.  For  in  this  life  we  have 
only  to  build  up  our  bodies  for  the  here- 
after, not  to  see  or  hear  with  the  eyes  and 


102  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

ears  of  the  hereafter.  A  flower  when 
opened  before  its  time  will  not  thrive.  And 
though  our  belief  in  a  life  to  come  may 
be  supported  by  such  occasional  glances 
caught  in  this  life,  it  must  not  take  its  foun- 
dation on  them.  A  sound  and  healthy  be- 
lief is  founded  on  arguments,  and  it  reaches 
to  the  highest  points  of  view  of  a  healthy 
life,  being  itself  essential  to  the  health  and 
integrity  of  such  a  life. 

Did  you  take  the  faint  image  in  which 
a  dead  person  appears  in  your  memory  for 
a  mere  inward  semblance?  If  so,  you  are 
mistaken;  it  is  more  than  that,  it  is  your 
friend's  own  self,  consciously  coming,  not 
only  near  you,  but  into  you.  His  former 
shape  is  still  the  garment  of  his  soul, 
though  no  longer  encumbered  with  his  for- 
mer solid  body  and  wandering  slowly  along 
with  him,  but  transparent  and  light,  free 
from  earthly  burdens,  changing  its  place 
in  a  moment,  at  the  call  of  every  person 
who  thinks  of  him,  or  even  entering  into 
your  mind  of  his  own  accord,  thus  causing 
you  to  remember  him  who  is  dead.  The 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  103 

old  idea,  so  generally  adopted,  of  the  souls 
of  the  dead  as  light,  bodiless,  unbounded 
by  space,  is  quite  a  correct  view  of  the 
subject,  without  earnestly  meaning  to  be  so. 
You  have  also  heard  of  ghosts  appear- 
ing— what  the  doctors  call  phantasms  or 
hallucinations.  They  are  indeed  halluci- 
nations of  the  living,  but,  at  the  same  time, 
real  manifestations  of  the  dead.  The  faint 
images  in  our  memory  are  such  manifesta- 
tions, those  vivid  apparitions  are  only  the 
more  so.  It  is  no  use  worrying  whether 
they  be  one  thing  or  the  other,  for  they 
are  really  both  things  at  a  time.  And  as 
you  are  not  frightened  by  the  images  with- 
in you,  being  present  manifestations  of 
spirits,  you  need  no  more  be  frightened  by 
the  apparitions  before  you.  Though, 
after  all,  in  a  certain  sense,  there  is  reason 
for  being  frightened.  The  images  of  the 
memory  are  either  called  up  by  yourself, 
or  they  come,  quietly  and  peacefully,  in 
the  course  of  your  inner  life  as  helps  to  its 
development;  the  other  class  of  manifesta- 
tions come  unbidden,  too  strong  to  be  kept 


104  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

back,  standing  before  you  it  seems,  but,  in 
reality,  standing  within  you,  not  to  help, 
but  rather  to  disturb  the  working  of  your 
inner  life;  such  a  presence  is  an  abnormal 
one,  belonging  at  the  same  time  to  this  life 
and  the  next.  The  dead  and  the  living 
ought  not  to  hold  intercourse  in  this  way. 
To  see  dead  persons  almost  as  distinctly 
and  objectively  as  spirits  see  each  other,  is 
almost  death  to  the  living;  hence  the  fright 
of  the  living  caused  by  their  presence.  And 
as,  in  those  cases,  the  dead  return  half- 
way from  the  realms  beyond  the  grave  to 
the  land  this  side  the  grave,  popular  belief 
— not  an  unfounded  belief,  perhaps — will 
have  it  that  only  those  spirits  walk  about 
here  that  are  not  released  yet,  but  still 
earth-bound  with  a  heavy  chain.  To  drive 
away  the  unblessed  spirit,  call  for  the  help 
of  a  better  and  mightier  one;  but  the  best 
and  the  mightiest  is  the  one  Spirit  above  all 
spirits.  In  His  protection,  what  can  harm 
you?  Popular  belief  agrees  in  this  that 
evil  spirits  will  vanish  when  the  name  of 
God  is  called  upon. 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  105 

There  is,  however,  in  this  matter  great 
danger  of  belief  degenerating  into  super- 
stition. The  simplest  means,  after  all,  of 
keeping  ghosts  away  is,  not  to  believe  in 
their  coming.  For  believing  that  they  may 
come  is  going  half-way  to  meet  them. 

"Spirits  see  each  other,"  I  said  just  now. 
I  argue  that  such  appearance,  which  is  con- 
trary to  the  order  of  things  at  present,  is 
only  anticipated  from  the  order  of  things 
to  come.  Clearly,  distinctly,  objectively, 
the  inhabitants  of  the  hereafter  will  see 
each  other,  in  the  same  shape  of  which  we 
in  this  life  preserve  but  a  faint  likeness,  a 
dim  contour,  in  our  memory.  For  they 
interpenetrate  each  other  with  their  whole 
nature,  of  which  a  small  portion  only  en- 
ters our  minds  when  we  remember  them. 
In  order  to  attract  them,  it  will  be  neces- 
sary to  direct  one's  attention  towards  them, 
in  after-life  as  well  as  at  present. 

Now  you  may  ask,  How  is  it  possible  for 
those  that  interpenetrate  each  other  to  ap- 
pear to  each  other  objectively,  in  a  distinct 
shape?  You  may  as  well  ask,  How  is  it 


106  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

possible  that  that  something  which,  in  your 
brain,  produces  the  idea  of  a  living  person, 
or  the  memory  of  a  dead  person  (and  this 
is  all  you  have  to  base  it  upon),  appears  to 
you  as  an  outward  object,  a  definite  recol- 
lection ?  The  effects  that  produce  your  rec- 
ollection have  no  distinct  shape  themselves, 
yet  they  bring  before  you  the  distinct  out- 
lines of  the  person  from  whom  they  orig- 
inally proceeded.  You  cannot  tell  why  it 
is  so,  in  this  life;  how  can  you  expect  to 
know  more  of  the  hereafter? 

Thus,  I  say  again,  do  not  draw  infer- 
ences from  supposed  present  causes  un- 
known to  you,  nor  from  premises  of  your 
own  invention;  but  from  present  facts 
known  to  you  and  all,  to  arrive  at  the 
greater  and  higher  facts  of  the  hereafter. 
Any  single  inference  may  be  erroneous,  so 
you  must  not  stick  to  all  the  particulars; 
but  the  accordance  of  all  the  different  in- 
ferences, pointing  towards  that  which  is 
before  and  above  all  inference,  will  be  the 
best  support  for  our  belief  from  below, 
and  the  best  guide  to  the  regions  above. 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  107 

But  if,  from  the  beginning,  you  would  take 
your  footing  above,  the  whole  path  of  be- 
lief which  is  to  lead  you  upward  might  slip 
from  under  your  feet. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THERE  would  be  no  more  difficulties 
for  our  belief,  could  we  only  make 
up  our  minds  to  take  the  word  that 
has  been  a  fine  saying  for  more  than  a  thou- 
sand years,  that  "in  God  we  live,  and  move, 
and  have  our  being,"  for  more  than  a 
word,  or  rhetorical  phrase.  In  that  case 
our  belief  in  God  and  in  our  own  eternal 
life  would  be  one;  we  should  then  look 
upon  our  own  life  as  part  of  God's  eternal 
life,  and  should  consider  the  height  of  our 
future  life  above  this  present  life  as  a 
higher  step  within  God,  from  that  lower 
step  where  we  are  placed  in  Him  now;  a 
better  insight  into  the  things  below  would 
enable  us  better  to  comprehend  higher 
things,  and  from  their  mutual  connection 
we  should  comprehend  the  great  whole  of 
which  we  only  form  a  part. 

When  your  perceptions  are  gone  out  of 
your  consciousness,  recollections  will  rise 


ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH.  109 

out  of  them.  Thus  your  whole  earthly  life 
of  perceptions  in  God  will  be  gone  one  day, 
but  a  higher  life  of  recollections  in  God 
will  have  risen  out  of  it;  and  as  your  rec- 
ollections move  and  associate  within  your 
head,  the  spirits  of  the  hereafter  move  and 
associate  within  the  Divine  head.  It  is 
only  one  step  higher  on  the  same  ladder, 
which  does  not  lead  to  God,  but  higher  up 
in  God,  who  holds  within  Himself  top  and 
bottom  of  that  ladder.  How  empty  must 
God  appear  to  those  who  take  the  above- 
mentioned  text  for  an  empty  sound;  how 
full  is  God  through  the  full  significance  of 
those  words ! 

Do  you  pretend  to  know  how,  in  your 
present  stage,  a  life  of  perceptions  is  pos- 
sible in  your  mind?  You  know  nothing 
but  that  there  is  such  a  life,  which,  being  a 
spiritual  life,  is  only  possible  in  a  spirit. 
So  there  can  be  no  difficulty  for  you  to  be- 
lieve— although  you  know  not  how  it  is 
possible — that  there  will  be  a  life  hereaf- 
ter, of  your  whole  spirit  in  a  higher  spirit; 


110  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

if  you  only  believe  that  there  is  a  higher 
Spirit,  and  yourself  in  Him. 

And  again,  there  would  be  no  more  diffi- 
culties for  our  belief,  if  we  could  make  up 
our  minds  to  take  for  true  that  other  word, 
that  in  everything  God  liveth,  and  moveth, 
and  hath  His  being.  Then  there  would  be 
no  dead  world  for  us,  but  a  living  world, 
out  of  which  every  human  being  builds  up 
his  own  future  body,  as  a  new  house  built 
up  within  the  house  of  God. 

When,  oh,  when,  will  that  life-giving 
faith  become  alive  among  us?  The  fact 
that  it  is  a  life-giving  faith  shall  make  it 
alive. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

YOUR  question  was,  whether  it  would 
be;  my  answer  is  how  it  will  be. 
Faith  renders  your  question  as  to 
the  Whether  unnecessary;  but  if  the  ques- 
tion is  asked,  there  is  that  one  answer  as 
to  the  How.    And  as  long  as  that  How  has 
not  been  settled,  the  Whether  will  not  cease 
to  come  and  go. 

Here  is  the  tree ;  let  one  or  the  other  of 
its  leaves  drop  away,  if  only  its  root  be 
struck  deeply  and  firmly  in  the  ground: 
new  branches  and  new  leaves  will  grow  and 
drop  away  again,  but  the  tree  will  stand 
and  bring  forth  blossoms  of  beauty,  and 
instead  of  taking  its  root  in  faith,  bear 
fruits  of  faith. 


APPENDIX  I. 

ON  THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  HEAVENLY  VISION, 

VISION  may  be  produced  on  several 
principles.  If  an  opaque  screen 
were  placed  in  front  of  the  retina 
with  only  a  tiny  opening  in  it,  we  could  see 
through  that  opening,  as  every  luminous 
point  of  the  outer  world  would  send  a  slen- 
der ray  of  light  through  it,  and  the  rays 
crossing  in  the  opening  would  produce  an 
image,  inverted,  on  the  retina.  But  such 
vision  by  means  of  slender  rays  would  be 
rather  dim ;  that  is  not  the  way  in  which  we 
see  on  earth.  By  another  principle  a  trans- 
parent lens  is  placed  in  front  of  the  retina 
which  concentrates  the  whole  cone  of  light 
emitted  from  every  luminous  point  of  the 
outer  world,  into  a  spot  of  the  retina.  This 
makes  vision  much  more  distinct;  and  this 
is  the  actual  principle  of  earthly  vision,  or 
rather  of  the  external  process  of  it;  it  does 
not  explain  the  real  act  of  seeing.  For  the 


APPENDIX.  H3 


soul  does  not  see  immediately  the  points  of 
the  image  on  the  retina;  vision,  as  a  mental 
act,  is  produced  by  the  vibrations  propa- 
gated into  the  brain,  the  different  vibra- 
tions proceeding  from  one  point  being  felt 
in  one ;  whatever  proceeds  from  a  common 
source  is  perceived  as  one  in  the  soul, 
though  we  cannot  tell  how  a  complex  proc- 
ess in  space  is  condensed  into  a  simple  per- 
ception in  the  mind.  It  is,  after  all,  nat- 
ural enough  for  one  and  the  same  thing  to 
afford  a  different  appearance  when  seen 
from  different  points  of  view — an  inner  or 
an  outer  one — and  it  is  a  general  experi- 
ence concerning  the  connection  between 
body  and  soul  that  a  simple  psychic  act  is 
based  on  a  physical  complex,  or,  that  the 
physically  complicated  is  psychically  con- 
centrated into  something  simple  and  one 
in  itself.  Vision  may  be  explained  through 
this  law,  and  could  hardly  be  explained 
differently,  from  the  impossibility  of  prov- 
ing a  simple  seat  of  the  soul. 

Now,  a  third  principle  of  vision  may  be 
conceived,  viz.,  the  principle  of  interpene- 


114  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

tration  of  the  psycho-physical  emanations 
(i.  e.,  physical  processes  producing  psy- 
chical effects)  of  two  opposite  points,  the 
perception  of  either  point  being  produced 
in  the  other  immediately,  by  uniting  those 
various  emanations  in  one.  And  what  holds 
good  for  two  separate  points,  would  do  for 
two  separate  systems  of  points.  This 
would  be  the  most  perfect  vision,  the  points 
of  the  objects  appearing  to  each  other  im- 
mediately and  in  their  full  intensity,  in  pro- 
portion with  the  power  produced  by  the  in- 
terpenetrating emanations,  whereas  in  our 
earthly  vision  it  is  not  the  points  of  the 
objects  that  are  seen,  only  their  images  on 
the  retina. 

I  imagine  that  there  could  be  a  mode  of 
vision  on  this  principle.  The  emanations 
of  celestial  bodies,  meeting  each  other  in 
space,  do  indeed  correspond  to  it,  suppos- 
ing that  luminary  vibrations,  or  concomi- 
tant vibrations  of  a  higher  order,  may  be 
considered  as  psycho-physical  movements 
(which  supposition  is  nowise  contrary  to 
experience).  There  has  indeed  always 


APPENDIX.  115 


been  an  inclination  to  connect  our  own 
mental  life  with  movements  of  imponder- 
able substance;  nor  can  there  be  anything 
to  prevent  our  connecting  such  movements 
in  the  outer  world  with  a  mental  life  of  a 
higher  order.  Even  our  human  eye  would 
not  exactly  require  a  lens  in  front  of  the 
retina  to  receive  point-shaped  impressions 
from  outward  points,  if  the  retina  itself, 
and  each  successive  stratum  of  it,  which 
now  intercept  outward  emanations  on  their 
way  to  our  psycho-physical  system,  should 
offer  a  surface  of  sensitive  points  to  re- 
ceive, and  meet  with  their  own  emanations, 
directly  and  without  any  check  or  hind- 
rance, the  impression  of  the  outward  vi- 
brations :  as  in  the  case  of  the  luminary 
emanations  of  stars. 

What,  then,  is  the  use  of  earthly  eyes? 
It  is  this  that  in  their  connection  with  our 
other  senses,  they  help  to  form  organs  for 
effects  of  a  higher  order,  organs  which  we 
call  Men,  who  in  their  turn  are  connected, 
and  united  into  an  organism  of  a  higher 
order  than  man,  which  we  call  Earth! 


116  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

New  vibrations  go  forth,  no  doubt,  from 
the  central  points  in  which  the  fibres  of  the 
optic  nerve  terminate  in  the  brain,  vibra- 
tions propagated  through  the  fibres  be- 
tween those  points,  and  producing,  where 
they  meet,  through  the  total  of  impressions 
caused  by  the  single  points,  the  perceptions 
of  real  objects:  in  the  same  way  we  may 
assume  the  perceptions  of  all  the  heavenly 
beings  to  be  embraced  in  a  higher  Divine 
perception. 

Two  naked  men  are  evidently  under  the 
same  outward  conditions,  reciprocally,  as 
two  stars;  however,  they  do  not  see  each 
other  with  their  skins ;  for  the  psycho-phy- 
sical system  of  man  is  inside  him,  closed 
up  behind  his  skin,  whereas  that  of  the 
Earth  is  spread  out  over  its  surface,  having 
its  ultimate  ramifications  in  the  human  be- 
ings that  live  on  that  surface.  Now,  there 
is  one  place  in  the  skin  affording  an  en- 
trance to  our  psycho-physical  system,  name- 
ly, the  eye,  whereby  men  do  indeed  see 
each  other.  The  rest  of  the  emanations 
which  they  interchange,  spread  beyond 


APPENDIX.  117 


them  into  the  greater  psycho-physical  sys- 
tem, without  affecting  their  own  respective 
consciousness. 

I  do  not  say  that  every  point  in  this  the- 
ory is  well  established,  but  I  hope  I  have 
given  a  right  idea  of  a  right  principle.  It 
is  no  demonstration,  it  is  only  a  remark, 
which  I  hope  will  prove  the  germ,  still  half- 
buried  in  darkness,  to  a  great  luminous 
world-conception.  My  speculations,  as  laid 
down  in  this  last  and  in  the  foregoing  chap- 
ters, will  become  better  established  on 
larger  and  firmer  grounds,  and  will  be 
more  generally  adopted,  when  the  science 
of  psycho-physics,  now  only  in  its  infancy, 
shall  see  its  object  not  in  an  isolated  theory 
of  the  relations  between  body  and  mind  in 
the  particular  human  and  animal  organ- 
isms, but  in  a  universal  theory  of  the  rela- 
tions between  the  mental  and  the  material 
principles  of  the  universe.  Such  a  time,  of 
which  this  purports  to  be  a  harbinger,  shall 
come.  To  the  materialist  and  the  idealist 
my  views  must  at  present  appear  foolish- 
ness, just  as  the  materialism  and  idealism 


118  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

of  our  days  will  one  day  appear  foolishness 
in  their  turn. 


APPENDIX  II. 

THE  following  passages  contained  in 
the  first  Edition  in  the  places  here 
referred  to,  were  suppressed  by  the 
Author  in  the  later  editions. 

( Page  70,  after  line  15).  It  ought,  how- 
ever, to  be  remembered  that  though  in  the 
third  stage  the  spirit  of  man  may  rise  to- 
wards God,  the  third  stage  is  not  the  high- 
est attainable.  In  that  stage  the  spirit  of 
man,  having  passed  through  this  life,  will 
more  fully  comprehend  the  working  of  God 
in  the  life  of  the  earth.  However,  God 
manifests  himself  in  still  higher  stages  of 
life,  which  we  are  in  the  habit  of  vaguely 
describing  as  the  heavens.  To  them  man 
aspires  during  the  third  stage,  preparing 
himself  to  live  there  in  a  succeeding  stage. 
Nothing  in  the  life  of  the  earth  will  be  con- 
cealed from  man  while  in  the  third  stage. 
The  greatest  spirit  of  that  stage  will  by 
God's  appointment  be  governors  of  the 


120  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

earth.  But  into  that  higher  life,  beyond 
the  earth,  man  will  have  to  be  born  through 
a  second  death. 

(Page  82,  line  17.)  This  earth  of  ours, 
of  which  mankind  forms  a  part,  is  to  the 
spirits  of  the  third  stage  a  common  body, 
and  all  the  processes  of  nature  are  to  them 
what  the  processes  of  our  own  body  are  to 
us.  Their  body  encloses  the  bodies  of  the 
second  stage,  as  the  bodies  of  the  second 
stage  enclose  those  of  the  first.  Each  lower 
sphere  of  life  is  enclosed  in  a  higher 
sphere,  into  which  it  is  one  day  to  open. 
The  one  grows  in  and  through  the  other, 
by  means,  as  it  were,  of  nerves  connecting 
the  two.  But  there  is  no  connection  of 
consciousness  between  the  two.  No  sphere 
of  life  is  clearly  aware  of  the  greater 
sphere  which  encloses  it,  and  which  it  is 
one  day  to  occupy.  Thus  man  in  his  pres- 
ent stage  is  like  the  seed  growing  and  de- 
veloping itself  as  part  of  the  plant,  with- 
out knowing  about  the  light-life  of  the 
plant,  which  shall  one  day  be  its  own  life, 
when  in  death  it  has  left  its  mother-plant. 


APPENDIX.  121 


(Page  85,  line  19,  after  the  colon.)  The 
earth,  the  body  of  the  spirits  of  the  third 
stage,  is  self-contained,  but  connected  with 
a  greater  body,  the  Sun,  by  the  emanating 
light  and  the  general  gravitation — as  the 
child  is  connected  with  its  mother's  body  by 
the  navel-string,  receiving  through  it  its 
impulses  of  life.  And  as  the  embryo,  while 
connected  with  its  mother,  goes  on  growing 
and  unfolding  itself,  till  in  its  first  birth  it 
passes  into  the  mother's  own  sphere  of  life, 
and  as  man,  after  his  birth,  while  connected 
with  the  earth,  goes  on  growing  and  un- 
folding himself,  till  in  death  he  shall  pass 
into  the  earth's  own  sphere  of  life,  so  the 
spirits  of  the  third  stage,  being  connected 
with  the  sun,  will  go  on  unfolding  them- 
selves, till  on  the  fourth  stage  they  shall 
pass  into  the  sun's  life.  In  this  way  man, 
having  gone  through  his  round  of  the  three 
stages  of  earth-life,  is  to  begin  a  new  round 
in  a  higher  world — another  celestial  body 
—so  that  the  highest  stage  of  his  earth-life 
is  like  an  embryo-state  for  the  lowest  stage 
of  that  higher-world  life.  And  so  the  earth 


122  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

may  be  compared  to  an  egg,  from  which 
the  sun  breeds  spirits,  that  they  may  rise  to 
the  sun  on  wings  of  light. 

In  their  stage  of  sun-life  the  spirits,  by 
means  of  light  and  gravitation,  will  see  and 
feel  through  space,  and  commune  with 
planets  and  suns,  as  far  as  light  and  gravi- 
tation reach.  Their  common  light-sense 
will  enable  the  sun's  inhabitants  to  survey 
at  a  glance  the  varieties  of  life  and  motion 
in  all  the  planets  as  clearly  as  we  now  sur- 
vey our  nearest  surroundings;  and  so, 
though  born  on  one  individual  planet  out 
of  the  many,  we  shall  know  them  all  with- 
out having  to  pass  a  lifetime  on  each  of 
them.  The  spirits  who,  while  living  on 
several  planets,  remained  strangers  to  each 
other,  will  meet  on  the  sun,  in  the  same 
sphere  of  life,  whence  each  of  them  may 
look  back  upon  the  scene  of  his  own  former 
life  as  well  as  on  the  scenes  of  evolution  of 
all  the  rest.  And  in  a  succeeding  stage  the 
spirits  of  the  individual  sun  will  be  born 
into  the  vast  ocean  of  suns,  which  knows  of 
no  bounds  but  boundlessness.  And  in  a 


APPENDIX.  123 


still  higher  stage  they  will  reach  the  eter- 
nal source  of  space  and  time,  itself  indepen- 
dent of  space  and  time — and  finally  even 
they  will  outgrow  all  space  and  time,  being 
received  into  God's  everlasting  glory. 

Chapter  IX  (conclusion).  Therefore  be 
ye  of  good  courage  in  your  outlook  beyond 
the  grave;  do  not  heed  the  sayings  of  ig- 
norance, proclaiming  that  in  death,  when 
man's  body  is  given  back  to  the  dust  of  the 
earth,  his  spirit  shall  lose  itself  in  the  abso- 
lute. Of  a  truth,  man  shall  return  to  the 
absolute,  though  not  after  his  first  death, 
but  after  his  last,  and  not  like  the  raindrop 
that  is  swallowed  up  in  the  ocean  from 
which  it  originally  came,  but  like  the  butter- 
fly that  leaves  its  caterpillar's  skin  behind, 
to  move  about  freely  and  joyfully  in  its 
pure  parental  element.  The  last  death  of 
man,  or  of  any  spirit,  is  indeed  an  addition, 
of  a  new  individual  and  independent  ele- 
ment evolved  in  and  through  its  various 
stages  of  life,  to  the  grea.t  Principle  of  all 
existence,  undetermined  in  the  beginning  of 
creation,  but  destined  to  be  determined  and 


124  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

evolved  by  this  very  addition.  The  abso- 
lute is  not  a  grave-yard  for  decaying 
corpses ;  it  is  the  birth-place  of  the  children 
of  God  that  have  grown  into  angels,  who 
are  as  eyes  and  ears  and  hands  to  God, 
whereby  he  governs  all  the  lower  spheres, 
down  to  this  present  world  of  ours. 


AUTHOR'S  POSTSCRIPT  TO  FIRST 
EDITION. 

r"TlHE  idea  worked  out  in  this  little 
book,  that  the  spirits  of  the  dead 
continue  to  exist  as  individuals  in 
the  living,  was  first  suggested  to  me 
through  a  conversation  with  my  friend 
Professor  Billroth,1  then  living  in  Leipzig, 
now  in  Halle.  The  idea  appealing  to  a 
series  of  kindred  thoughts  lying  ready  in 
my  own  mind,  and  engendering  new  ones, 
finally  assumed  the  present  shape,  enlarged 
by  a  kind  of  spontaneous  evolution  into  the 
idea  of  a  higher  life  of  spirits  in  God.  In 

'Johann  Gustav  Friedrich  Billroth,  born  1808  at 
Lubeck,  died  1836  at  Halle,  where  in  1834  he  had  been 
appointed  professor  of  theology.  He  must  not  be  con- 
fused with  Theodore  Billroth,  the  famous  anatomist. 
Prof.  Billroth's  chief  work,  here  alluded  to  (but,  as  it 
seems,  undeservedly  neglected  in  our  days),  was  pub- 
lished after  his  death  by  Prof.  Erdmann,  of  Halle: 
Vorlesungenuber  Religionsphilosophie:  Leipzig,  1837. 


126  ON  LIFE  AFTER  DEATH. 

the  meantime  the  originator's  own  way  of 
thinking  has  taken  a  different  direction 
from  ours,  in  the  philosophy  of  religion  in 
general,  and  especially  in  the  doctrine  of 
immortality,  so  that  he  seems  for  the  most 
part,  if  not  entirely,  to  have  abandoned  the 
fundamental  idea.  Nevertheless,  I  have 
felt  obliged  to  mention  him  as  its  origina- 
tor, though  I  may  no  longer  speak  of  him 
as  its  advocate.  As  far  as  I  know  he  will 
expound  his  own  views  on  the  subject  in 
a  philosophical  work  shortly  to  appear. 

Written  at  Gastein, 

August,  1835. 


INDEX. 


Absolute  not  a  grave-yard,  124. 
^Esthetics,  Introduction  to,  10. 
After-life,  Description  of,  41-43. 
Angels,  Anatomy  of,  12;  Belief  in,  17. 
Apparitions,  103. 
Art,  Germ  for  a  new  phase  of,  64. 

B 

Billroth,  J.  G.  F.,  125. 

Birth,  31. 

Blessed  or  unblessed  existence,  20. 

Blessed  the  man,  62. 

Body,  Celestial,  121. 

Body-spirit,  Infant  has,  34. 

Bodies  of  the  three  stages,  87. 

Brain,  a  world  of  emotions,  93;  and  lute,  73;  Mental 

acts   accompanied  by  vibrations  of,  73;   Without 

brain  after  death,  92. 
Buchner,  F.  K.  C.  L.,  7. 
Butterfly,  Man  like  a,  123. 


Caterpillar,  Man  like  a,  123. 
Celestial  body,  121. 

127 


128  INDEX. 


Child  alive  a  moment  cannot  die,  75. 

Christ,  Church  of,  23;  in  the  Lord's  Supper,  65; 
Christ  liveth,  39;  son  of  God,  22;  the  mediator, 
18;  to  be  worshiped  with  God,  71;  United  in, 
24;  United  with,  in  the  hereafter,  67. 

Christ's  body,  the  Church,  40;  life  not  supernat- 
ural, 22f. 

Christianity,  21. 

Church,  The,  Christ's  body,  40;  of  Christ,  23. 

Churches  and  scoffers,  64. 

Circle  of  influences,  75. 

Circles,  Intersecting  wave,  89;  of  waves,  37f. 

Clairvoyance,  47,  101. 

Color-star,    46. 

Commandments  of  God,  24. 

Communion  of  Spirits,  79,  80. 

Conscious  energy,  94;  Conscious  in  death,  75. 

Consciousness,  Continuation  of,  20;  not  reabsorbed 
in  universal,  98 ;  Set  free  by  death,  59 ;  Threshold 
of,  90,  99;  Transition  of,  20;  Union  of,  enhanced 
by  death,  66;  Universal,  97;  wanders,  99,  100. 

Continuation  of  life,  96. 

D 

Darwin,  Charles,  25. 

Dead  geniuses  and  saints,  mediators,  70. 

Dead,  The,  and  living,  Meeting  of,  58;  how  they 
arise,  63;  Image  of,  in  memory,  102;  in  your 
mind,  61;  Influence  of,  53;  made  happy  or  mis- 
erable, 62;  Real  manifestations  of  the,  103; 
Shrine  for  great,  70;  Spirits  of  the,  37;  Thoughts 


INDEX.  129 


of  the,  not  gone,  37 ;  within  us,  60 ;  Worship  of 
the,  70. 

Death,  31;  a  climacteric  disease,  42;  a  new  day,  76; 
a  second  birth,  32;  After  death,  liberty,  81; 
Conscious  in,  75 ;  Consciousness  set  free  by,  59 ; 
enhancing  union  of  consciousness,  66 ;  First  and 
last,  123;  In  the  moment  of,  36;  Man  will  learn 
after,  85. 

Desert  island,  Man  on,  74. 

Divine  germ  in  the  third  stage,  30;  Divine  life,  91; 
Divine  perception,  116;  Divine  spirit  all-con- 
scious, 17. 

£ 

Earth;    a  common  body,   120;    an   embryo-state,   121; 

an  enormous  eye,   84;    an  individuality,   16,  93; 

a   system,   15;    and   mankind,    16;    bound   spirits, 

104;   like  an  egg,  122;  -spirit,  17ff;  the  body  of 

the  spirits  of  the  third  stage,  121. 
Earthly  eyes,  Use  of,  115. 
Earthly  vision,  83,  113. 
Egg,  Earth  like  an,  122. 
Embryo-state,  The  Earth  an,  122. 
Eucharist,  Christ  in  the,  65. 
Evolution,  26. 

Eye;  an  entrance,  116;  Earth  an  enormous,  84. 
Eyes,  Use  of  earthly,  115. 


Fechner,  Gustav  Theodor;  Dates  of  Birth  and  Death, 
8;  on  spiritism,  29;  Pseudonym  of,  11;  Works: 
Elements  of  Psychophysics,  9;  Introduction  to 


130  INDEX. 


^Esthetics,  10;  Four  Paradoxes,  11;  Anatomy  of 
Angels,  12;  Stapelia  Mixta,  12;  Zend  Avesta, 
13,  15,  21,  26;  Summum  Bonum,  13;  Nanna  or 
the  Soul-Life  of  Plants,  13 ;  Professor  Schleiden 
and  the  Moon,  25;  On  the  Soul  Question,  25; 
The  Three  Motives  and  Arguments  of  Belief, 
25;  Some  Ideas  on  the  Creation  and  Evolution 
of  Organisms,  26 ;  The  Daylight- View  versus  the 
Night- View,  26. 

Fechner's  Law,  7. 

Fellowship  with  great  spirits,  67. 

Future  life  one  of  reminiscences,  18. 

G 

Ghosts,   103. 

God,  Belief  in,  21ff;  Christ  to  be  worshiped  with, 
71 ;  In  Him  we  live,  108 ;  lives  in  everything, 
110;  Our  life  part  of  God's  life,  108. 

God's  Commandments,  24;  ubiquity,  91. 

Goethe,  J.  W.  v.,  38,  39. 

Good,  Increasing  power  of,  44. 

Grave,  Outlook  beyond  the,  123. 

Grave-yard,  Absolute  not  a,  124. 

H 

Hallucinations,  103. 
Heavens,  Hopes  of,  83. 
Heavenly  things,  15. 
Hell,  41,  52. 
Herbart,  J.  F.,  10. 

Hereafter;  How  to  arrive  at  facts  of,  106;  Justice 
in  the,  25 ;  Senses  too  narrow  for,  78 ;  Spirits  of 


INDEX.  131 


the,  109;  Spirits  united  in  the,  69;  United  in  the, 
66;   United  with  Christ  in  the,  67. 


Illumination,  State  of,  77. 
Infant  has  body-spirit,  34. 
Interpenetration,  114;  of  spirits,  105. 
Intersecting  wave  circles,  89. 
Isolated  man,  Mind  of  an,  75. 

J 
Justice,  63;  in  the  hereafter,  24;  of  the  universe,  41. 


Larger  body,  Our,  101. 

Life,  part  of  God's  life,  108. 

Light-sense,   122. 

Living  and  dead,  Meeting  of,  58. 

Longing  gratified,  84. 

Lute  and  brain,  73. 

Luther,  M.,  39. 

M 

Means  and  ends,  45. 

Mediator,  Christ  a,  70. 

Mediators,  Dead  geniuses  and  saints  are,  70. 

Mental     acts     accompanied     by     vibrations     of     the 

brain,  73. 
Mind  of  man,  46. 

Mises,  Dr.  (Pseudonym  of  Fechner),  11,  12,  13. 
Moleschott,  Jacob,  7. 
Mother  looking  for  child,  60. 


132  INDEX. 


N 

Name  to  be  kept  unsullied,  63. 
Nanna,  or  the  Soul-Life  of  Plants,  13. 
Napoleon,  38,  39. 

O 
Od,  27. 

P 

Paradoxes,    Four,  Footnote,   11. 

Perceptions;    Present    Life    one    of,    18;    and    remi- 
niscences, 19. 
Phantasms,  103. 
Placenta,  Footnote,  35. 
Plants,  The  Soul-Life  of,  14. 
Present  life  one  of  perceptions,   18. 
Present  stage  like  a  seed,  120. 
Presentiments,  101. 
Psychophysics,   117;   Elements  of,  9. 
Psychophysical  emanations,  114. 
Punishment  and  Reward,  24,  25,  41,  43,  62. 


Reichenbach,  Baron,  27. 

Reminiscences;   Future  Life  one  of,  18;    and  percep- 
tions,  19. 

Resurrection  of  man,  23. 
Reward  and  punishment,  24,  25,  41,  43,  62. 

S 

Scheibner,  27. 
Schiller,  F.  v.,  39. 
Schleiden,  M.  J.,  25. 


INDEX.  133 


Scoffers  and  churches,  64. 

Seed,  Present  stage  like  a,  120. 

Self  unimpaired,  Man's,  78. 

Sense  organs  dispensed  with,  82. 

Senses;  too  narrow  for  hereafter,  78;  Windows 
of,  81. 

Shrine  for  great  dead,  70. 

Sight,  A  new  kind  of,  84. 

Slade,  Henry,  27. 

Sleep  and  Waking,  95. 

Soul,  Symbol  of  the,  47. 

Spheres  intersect,  88. 

Spirit  tried  here,  43. 

Spirits;  cannot  conceal  their  thoughts,  79;  Close  Fel- 
lowship with  the  great,  67;  Communion  of,  79, 
80;  continue  as  individuals,  125;  engender 
thoughts  within  us,  48 ;  entering  into  us,  47 ; 
Harmony  of,  55;  Higher,  55;  Immediate  inter- 
course of,  32;  in  God,  126;  Kindred,  51,  54; 
of  the  hereafter,  109;  of  the  third  stage,  87;  see 
each  other,  105;  Strife  between,  49,  50,  55; 
try  to  make  use  of  us,  48;  united  in  the  here- 
after, 69. 

Spiritism,  27,  28 ;  Fechner  on,  29. 

Spiritual;  body,  36;  movements,  55;  world  like  a 
tree,  69. 

Stages  of  life.      See  s.  v.    Three  stages  of  life. 

Stapelia  Mixta,  12. 

Stork  to  carry  babies,  No,  83. 

Strife  between  spirits,  49,  50,  55. 

Summum  Bonum,  13. 

Superstition,  Danger  of,  105. 

Symbol  of  the  soul,  47. 


134  INDEX. 


Telepathy  (not  mentioned,  but  probably  implied), 
32,  59,  79. 

Thoughts  of  the  dead  not  gone,  37. 

Three  Stages  of  Life,  30f,  35f,  121;  Bodies  of,  87; 
First  Stage,  31;  Second  (present)  Stage,  like  a 
seed,  120;  Third  Stage,  54,  119;  Spirits  of,  87,  121. 

Threshold  of  consciousness,  90,  99. 

Tree  of  spirits,  69. 

U 

Union  of  consciousness  enhanced  by  death,  66. 
United  in  the  hereafter,  66. 
Universe,  alive,   14. 

V 

Vibrations,  Footnote,   74;   of   brain,    Mental    acts   ac- 
companied by,  73. 
Vision,  112,  113,  114. 

W 

Wadsworth,  Maria  C.,  7. 
Waking  and  sleep,  95. 
Weber,  W.,  27. 
Woe  to  the  man,  62. 
Wren  on  eagle's  back,  91. 
Wundt,  Wilhelm,  10,  27. 


Zend-Avesta,  13,  15,  21,  26. 
Zollner,  Professor,  27. 


